Bengaluru: For the first time in the state, Pink Booths were set up to encourage women voters to exercise their franchise in the assembly elections.
They were quite a hit among women, who were happy to cast their votes in the Pink Booths – also called Sakhi Booths that were completely managed by women staff, including the security personnel. Around 450 Sakhi Booths were set up across the state.
The women voters appreciated the effort of the Election Commission and said that such booths should be introduced across the country.
Priyanka Dwivedi, a fashion designer and a resident of Kasturi Nagar, who cast her vote at a Pink
Booth in CMR College in OMBR Layout under the C.V. Raman Nagar constituency, was excited to see the booth set
up especially for women. “It is a good initiative and it will surely encourage women to come out and vote. I was voting for the first time and voting at the Pink Booth was even more exciting. Such initiatives will help more women to come out and vote,” she said.
Another voter, Priya Rao, said that the Pink Booths should have been introduced in the previous assembly elections, but it is better late than never. “These booths do make help women feel more comfortable. It was introduced on an experimental basis in a few other states and now it’s a hit in Karnataka. I hope we will get more such booths in the coming years,” she said.
Till 1 pm, around 25.14 percent of voting was recorded in these booths. An official from the Election Commission said, “Wherever there were more women voters, Pink Booths were set up. In the city alone, there are around 26 Pink Booths, which received a good response. We will announce the overall percentage at these votes on Sunday, as the officials are busy transporting the EVMs to cluster centres.”
