As many as 1.71 lakh more voters exercised their franchise in the Lok Saba election in Ballari parliamentary constituency on Tuesday when compared with the turnout in the byelections held in 2018.
The increase in the turnout was almost four times more than the actual increase in the electorate of 43,031 between the two elections held within less than six months.
Ballari parliamentary constituency recorded 69.59% polling, with 12.18 lakh of 17.51 lakh electorate exercising their franchise on Tuesday.
The polling percentage was up by 8.47 percentage points when compared with that in the 2018 bypoll and was down by 0.7 percentage points when compared with the turnout in 2014 election.
The highest polling was recorded in Hagari Bommanahalli Assembly segment (73.37%) and the lowest in Ballari City (63.05%) The turnout in the other Assembly segments was Hadagali – 71.46%, Sandur – 71.16%, Kampli – 70.72%, Ballari (ST) – 70.12%, Kudlig – 69.22%, and Vijayanagar – 68.59%.
Booth number 154 in Hagari Bommanahalli Assembly segment recorded the highest turnout of 90.23%, while booth number 9 in the same segment recorded the lowest turnout of 0.56 %, as people of Mutukur village had boycotted the polling in protest against the failure of the authorities to shift the gram panchayat headquarters to their village, Ramprasath Manohar, Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer, told presspersons here on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the political future of the candidates have been sealed in the electronic voting machines (EVMS). The EVMs have been kept in the strongroom with adequate security.
