There will be 23 pink polling booths — ones fully managed by women — in the district come May 12.
For the first time in Karnataka, all-woman polling booths will be established across the 224 constituencies of the State. The Election Commission of India had trialled this idea for the first time in the Assembly elections in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, followed by Gujarat and more recently in the northeast.
The EC, in its notification, suggested setting up one such booth in each constituency. In Mysuru, there will be one pink booth in every rural constituency and five in each urban constituency.
The EC has launched a promotional campaign on pink polling booths in the electronic media. In the campaign, female poll staff are seen wearing pink clothing while the booth interiors too are of pink hue.
Mysuru has three urban constituencies — Chamaraja, Narasimharaja and Krishnaraja — and nine rural constituencies — Chamundeshwari (including some city areas), Varuna, K.R. Nagar, T. Narsipur, Periyapatna, Hunsur, Nanjangud, H.D. Kote, and T. Narsipur.
“At the pink booths, only female staff — presiding officers and polling officers — will oversee the election process. The security deployed at such booths will also be women,” said outgoing District Election Officer K.B. Shivakumar.
The district election authorities have not yet identified the booths that will be established as pink booths. The idea behind having booths fully managed by women is to encourage more women to participate in polling.
In Krishnaraja, Narasimharaja, and T. Narsipur constituencies, female voters outnumber their male counterparts. In Narasimharaja, out of the 2,53,051 voters, as many as 1,27,720 are women. In Krishnaraja, 1,20,618 of 2,39,192 voters are women, while in T. Narsipur, 98 constituency, 98,476 of 1,96,399 voters are women. In fact, women make up about 50% of the voters across the 11 constituencies of Mysuru district.
