After several weeks of intense election campaigning by all the political parties, today is the day for the voters of Karnataka to exercise their franchise. As per a report in this newspaper, the number of migrants in Karnataka increased from the previous decade. Also, 42.12% of Greater Bengaluru’s population originates from outside the district or the State. Given this large migrant population in Karnataka, Lokniti-Centre for the Study of Developing Societies conducted a study between April 28 and May 1 among the migrant voters of Bengaluru to find out their voting patterns.
Apprehensions of workers
Our study in the localities of migrant workers from north and north-east India showed that nearly 99% of them were not registered as voters in Karnataka. Most of these workers who live in houses near power mills or in makeshift arrangements near construction sites continued to retain their names on the voter lists of their home constituencies. Some of them were not able to adequately exercise their political voting rights due to geographical constraints; they found it difficult to travel home for every election. A migrant labourer from West Bengal said, “I went back home once to vote and I didn’t go twice. I will go back to vote during the next Lok Sabha election.”
