Frustrated with repeated elections imposed on them, voters of Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha constituency showed little enthusiasm in exercising their franchise in the byelection on Wednesday.
Though the byelection here has been described as a clash of titans with Anita Kumaraswamy, wife of Janata Dal(S) State president H.D. Kumaraswamy, pitted against D.K. Suresh, brother of Congress MLA D.K. Shivakumar, voters showed no enthusiasm on the day of polling.
Speaking to the media at Ketaganahalli, where he voted with his wife, Mr. Kumaraswamy himself admitted that voters were not enthusiastic because of the short term the candidate they would be sending to the Lok Sabha would have.
In some of the polling stations, police personnel and political party workers were seen waiting for people to come to vote. “Local leaders of political parties too were also not keen on bringing voters to the polling stations,” said Chandru of Kanakanagar in Ramanagaram taluk.
According to Ali Jan (52) of Thalaghatpura, people are frustrated as they have been forced to face repeated elections and byelections. “They are not interested in voting as the term of the Lok Sabha will last only a few months,” he said.
While this was the general mood, in an aberration, relatives of Chikkeeramma (48), who runs a petty shop in Jakke Gowdanadoddi, came from Bangalore city to cast their votes. However, she too was cynical about what elections meant to her.
“Elected representatives have not done anything for the development of the constituency. The village tank last filled 10 years ago. The failure of rain forces us to migrate to Kanakapura for manual labour. Anyway, we are voting, as we don’t have any alternative,” said Ms. Chikkeeramma.
There was little traffic on the road connecting Sathanur and Channapatna and workers of political parties were seen waiting eagerly for voters to turn up. Anybody who turned up got a great welcome from them.
