They were not 18 years old, but were just as excited. They were a different set of ‘first-time voters’. People who chose to make Bengaluru their home recently decided to exercise their franchise on Saturday and said it was essential for the city’s newer residents to follow suit.
Titas Goswami, an accountant, who has been working in the city for seven years, was seen at a polling booth in Hoody with his wife, both of them casting their vote in Karnataka for the first time. “I used to travel to West Bengal and vote. But I got my voter ID done here recently. It is important for newcomers to Bengaluru to vote, especially because they have a national perspective as well while casting their vote,” he said.
Hemant Kumar, an IT firm employee who is from New Delhi, also voted as a Bengaluru resident for the first time. “I have been living here for eight years. I was enrolled as a voter in Delhi. As I witnessed elections here, I saw how politicians don’t take Bengaluru seriously as it has too many migrants, which is why we were not a vote bank. We used to think that we pay taxes and our duty ends there, but it doesn’t. I didn’t want to waste my vote in Delhi as I couldn’t travel often. So I decided to shift my voter ID to Bengaluru and do my bit,” he said.
Among the new voters in the city were 81-year-old Balasubramanian and his wife Lakshmi, 76.
“We moved to Bengaluru from New Delhi. This is the first time that we are voting here,” said Mr. Balasubramanian. “The turnout here is lower than what we used to see in Delhi,” he said, disappointed.
Sujatha Basudutta, who came to the city in 2010, said this was her fourth time voting in Bengaluru. “ A lot of new residents don’t vote. I developed a sense of belongingness to this place and this is my way to give back to it,” she said.
