Kalaburagi, which is the centre of Kalyana Karnataka housing the headquarters of Kalaburagi Revenue Division and Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board (KKRDB), showed a pathetic performance in voter turnout in the Assembly Elections 2023 held on May 10.
As per the information provided by the Election Commission of India, Kalaburagi occupies the lowest position in the State outside Bengaluru City. While Kalaburagi district recorded a 66.43% voter turnout, Bengaluru city’s performance is even poorer with BBMP South recording the lowest turnout of just 52.33% followed by BBMP North (52.59%), BBMP Central 55.50% and Bengaluru Urban (57.71%). Kalaburagi had a turnout of 63.73% in 2018 and 65.22% in 2013 elections.
Chickballapur emerged as the top performer with 85.56% of voter turnout followed by Bengaluru Rural (85.08%), Ramanagara (85.04%), Mandya (84.45%), Tumakuru (83.58%), Kolar (81.75%), Hassan (81.73%), Haveri (81.50%), Chamarajanagar (81.48%) and Chitradurga (81.18%).
Of the seven districts in Kalyana Karnataka, Kalaburagi is the poorest performer with just 66.43% of voter turnout. Yadgir (68.77%), Raichur (70.03%) and Bidar (71.59%) occupied the next positions at the bottom rungs in the voter turnout grid.
The newly formed Vijayanagara district emerged as the topper with 78.07% voter turnout followed by Koppal (77.81%) and Ballari (76.24%) in second and third positions in the voter turnout grid.
Gulbarga Dakshin segment in Kalaburagi district, which recorded just 56.32% of voter turnout, is the poorest performer in Kalyana Karnataka. Its voter turnout is far lower than the State average of 73.19% and that of the top two performers in the State – the Melukote (91.93%) and Hosakote (90.95%).
There are 41 Assembly constituencies spread across the seven districts in the region and, among the five poorest performing constituencies, four are in Kalaburagi district – Gulbarga Dakshin (56.32%), Gulbarga Uttar (57.85%), Gulbarga Rural (62.45%) and Chittapur (64.79%). Raichur constituency in Raichur district recorded 62.01% to join the club of the poorest five performers of Kalyana Karnataka.
Girish Badole, Chief Executive Officer of Kalaburagi Zilla Panchayat and the head of the committee for Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP), attributed the relatively poorer turnout to the migration.
“We tried our best. We conducted extensive SVEEP activities across the district. We got good results in rural areas as the turnout is good there. But, Kalaburagi City did not perform well. There could be urban apathy. Another important reason could be migration. Those who had migrated to mega cities searching for livelihood options might have not been able to turn up for voting in their native places in Kalaburagi district,” Mr. Badole told The Hindu.
He, however, expressed contentment as the district improved its performance over the last Assembly Elections held in 2018.
