They — i.e., those who bothered to vote — braved the scorcher of a Sunday to queue up at the polling booths across Bangalore. Despite the lukewarm turnout, the steady stream rose by late afternoon, when the sun was more mellow.
Honnappa, a polling official in Yelahanka constituency, said that voters came in large numbers before 10 a.m. He said, “The queues were long in the morning. The polling booths were almost empty during the afternoon: people avoided stepping out as the temperature soared.”
Among those who flocked to the polling stations were a large number of senior citizens. Some of them were accompanied by their relatives, while some chose to wait patiently for their turn in the queue. There were doughty ones like the 91-year-old Arasamma, who hopped on to her grandson’s bike and went to a polling booth in Yelahanka only to be disappointed as her name was not on the list. “Ever since I was eligible to vote, I have cast my vote. This is the first time I couldn’t,” she said ruefully.
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A few polling booths experienced a delayed start. In a polling station of the Govindarajnagar Assembly constituency, the voting process was delayed by 45 minutes because of a glitch in the electronic voting machine (EVM).
Voters fretted in the queue as the officials did not allow anyone to enter the polling station. Later, a BBMP official rushed to the spot and repaired the EVM.
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