Prominent Bengalureans like former Lokayukta , Justice Santosh Hegde and Mohandas Pai of Infosys fame are leading the city’s graduates queuing up to register for voting in the Bangalore Graduates’ Constituency Election scheduled for June this year. Hundreds of students of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the Indian Institute of Management-Bengaluru( IIM-B) seemed clearly inspired by Justice Hegde as they registered to vote in the elections two days after he did .
While Bengaluru has over 20 lakh graduates eligible to vote in these elections, only 60,000 registered to vote in the last election held in 2006. This year however, around 1 lakh graduates have already registered to vote. “Bengaluru is more active in the graduates' constituency election this time. Justice Hegde and Mr Mohandas Pai volunteering to vote has had a huge impact on other voters,who are now coming out in bigger numbers to register,” said Ajit Phadnis, co-ordinator, Follow the Justice campaign which aims to get more graduates interested in the election. “We expect the number of registered voters to touch 1.2 lakh this election. But considering the huge number of eligible graduates in the city, this turnout is still negligible as there is not enough publicity for this election,” said Dr Ashwin Mahesh, Loksatta candidate for the poll. He suggests the election commission should make the process of registering voters easier to ensure a bigger tournout.
“There are not enough registration centres and the commission does not allow companies and resident welfare associations to register in bulk. This facility is reserved for only government departments,” he points out.