Karna poll sets record; 72.13 per cent exercise franchise

Setting a record,72.13 per cent of Karnataka's over 4.97 crore voters exercised their franchise in the assembly polls yesterday, the state Chief Electoral Officer Sanjeev Kumar said today, as he gave the revised figure of the voter turnout.

Election officials had said yesterday that an estimated 70 per cent of the electors had cast their votes.

Kumar said the voter percentage was the highest since the 1952 assembly polls.

"The voter turnout in the polls broke all records last night. By midnight, the figures showed that it was 72.13 per cent," he told PTI.

The turnout was the highest-ever in Karnataka since the 1952 Assembly elections, he said.

Women and young voters exercised their franchise in large numbers yesterday, he said.

Kumar said the 2013 Assembly polls had recorded a turnout of 71.45 per cent, which was the highest in the last six Assembly elections. It was 65 per cent in 2008 and 2004, 69 per cent in the 1989 and 1994 and 69 per cent in the 1990 elections, he said.

To a question on seizures in the run up to the polls, he said Rs 94 crore in cash, besides liquor worth Rs 24.78 crore and other items such as clothes, vehicles and electronic gadgets worth Rs 66 crore had been seized.

Kumar said re-election would take place in a polling station at Lottegollahalli in Hebbal constituency here since an electronic voting machine developed a glitch.

The election for the Jayanagara seat in Bengaluru was countermanded following the death of BJP candidate and sitting MLA B N Vijaykumar on May 4.

The Election Commission has deferred the polls for the Rajarajeswari Nagar seat to May 28 after a massive row erupted over a large number of voter ID cards being found in a Bengaluru apartment.

A single-phase polling was held in 222 constituencies out of the 224 elected seats in the Assembly, including 36 reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and 15 for the Scheduled Tribes (ST).

Karnataka has an electorate of over 4.97 crore, including 2.52 crore men and 2.45 crore women.

There were 15.42 lakh new voters, all in the age group of 18-19.

The counting will take place on May 15.