Herohalli repolling uneventful

The percentage of voter turnout in the repolling that took place at Herohalli in Yeshwantpur Assembly constituency in the city on Tuesday saw a marginally increase in comparison to the Sunday’s turnout.

The Election Commission had ordered the re-election in booth 38 as the electronic voting machine (EVM) in the booth developed a technical snag on Sunday. Of the total 715 voters in the booth, 470 cast their vote on Tuesday against 445 on Sunday. The voter turnout on Tuesday was 65.73 per cent, an increase of 3.5 percentage points from Sunday’s 62.23.

CANDIDATES

The candidates in the fray are H.L. Krishnappa (BJP), T.N. Javarayi Gowda (JD-S) and S.T. Somashekar (Congress).

Swami, the Presiding Officer of booth number 38, said voting took place between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. Polling was peaceful and without violations.

Polling agents said the repoll gave those who missing voting on Sunday a “second chance”. Bhavani Shankar H.A., Congress’s polling agent, said: “Those who had gone out of town on Sunday turned up and voted this time.”

But there were those who were annoyed too. Lingappa B., a resident of the area, said: “We had gone for a function in Kanakapura. But I had to return for the repoll. . I wish they had checked the machine to avoid inconvenience to so many people.”

A BONUS

BJP’s polling agent, Bhagyavati M.R., said her party used the extra day to canvass. “We believe that even a few hundreds can change the game.”

But a few other polling agents said the repoll was unlikely to make any significant impact on the outcome as the total number of voters in the booth is only 715, which works out to barely 0.23 per cent of the 3.08 lakh voters in the constituency.

Most voters said their candidate preference remained unchanged.