There was nearly 10 per cent increase in the voter turnout in Bangalore North, South and Central constituencies over the previous elections in 2009.
The average voter turnout in the three constituencies of Bangalore was pegged at 54 per cent as against 44.7 per cent in the previous polls. The increase in voter turnout in Bangalore comes after weeks of awareness campaigns carried out by not only government agencies, but also citizen groups.
The polling day began with voters queuing up in several polling booths as early as 6.30 a.m. though voting commenced at 7 a.m. Many had to wait for more than half-an-hour for their turn to exercise their franchise.
Bangalore North that is witnessing a close fight between the former Chief Minister and BJP candidate D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Congress candidate C. Narayanaswamy recorded a voter turnout of 52 per cent.
Bangalore South, another key constituency witnessing high voltage fight between the former Union Minister Ananth Kumar and Congress candidate Nandan Nilekeni, recorded 55 per cent voter turnout.
Bangalore Central, where sitting BJP member P.C. Mohan is being challenged by Congress candidate Rizwan Arshad, also recorded 55 per cent turnout.
Meanwhile, missing names continued to haunt voters in all the three Lok Sabha constituencies. Though not on a large scale, many names were missing from the voter list at Yarabnagar and Mohammedan Block in Bangalore South constituency.
As many as 55 EVMs were replaced in Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency after EVMs malfunctioned.
The Election Commission for the first time introduced the facility to provide printed slips from EVMs and some machines encountered printing problems. These machines were also a cause for confusion among a large number of voters. As the machine takes about seven seconds to deliver the slip, voters felt that their votes had not been recorded. Polling officials had to convince voters that their votes had been recorded, and that caused delay.
In Bangalore North Lok Sabha constituency, voters alleged that they were turned away from the polling station for bringing in ration card for identity purpose.
