Netas fail to lure Bengalureans in

Bengaluru: Politicians cutting across party lines have expressed concern over the low turnout at Saturday’s BBMP election. Janata Dal(S) state president H.D. Kumarswamy blamed the low turnout on immigrants to the city.

“More than 60 per cent people in Bengaluru are non-Kannadigas. They always talk and criticise about infrastructure, but when time comes to voting they just disappear into thin air. They all want a good city but do not want to vote a good representative. It is very unfortunate that we witness such low voter turnout at every elections. Most of citizens really do not show any interest in electing their representatives. We invest lot of resources to improve voter turnout, but this time too we have failed.”

KPCC president, Dr G. Parameshwar too expressed concern over low turnout and mooted compulsory voting as a remedy. “I am thoroughly disappointed with low turnout. This clearly shows that there is an urgent need for a constitutional amendment to be brought in order to make voting compulsory. Many countries have this, why not us? This is the debate this election has thrown open in public domain. I am not saying that voting should be in favour of a particular party. First let them come out and vote for whomever they want.”

Regarding his party’s prospects he said, “Whether it is low percentage or high percentage turnout, it always benefits the Congress one way or the other. Every election is different ball game. Issues are different, ground reality would be different, hence it would be unwise to say at this juncture that it would benefit us or others. But polling station reports prima-facie indicate that Congress party is ahead in more than 110 wards. Therefore, I am sure our party will easily achieve simple majority.”

Janata Dal (S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda said his party wanted to keep equidistance from its two rivals and accused the Congress party of using state machinery to harass his party workers. “Ours is small party when compared to both national parties. We neither have muscle power nor money power to match them. We contested in 187 wards, but that was done with an intention to maintain equidistance from both parties.

“Otherwise, we would have been unnecessarily be blamed that our party was having a tacit understanding with BJP as well as Congress. We have been a victim of such vicious campaign by these parties earlier. We had mainly focused in three Assembly constituencies, where our party candidates had won.”

The former prime minister lamented that “Despite, our small strength, the Congress party is literally after us and unleashed entire administrative machinery behind us.”