Karnataka Has Nearly 17,000 Voters Who Are Older Than The State

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday announced the schedule for Karnataka Assembly election, which will take place on May 10. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar gave details of the preparation made by the poll body to conduct election peacefully, including the technological setup for the polls. He also announced an interesting fact - that the state has over 16,000 voters above the age of 100. The Karnataka Assembly election will be held in a single phase and the counting of votes will be done on May 13.

"Karnataka has 12.15 lakh voters who are 80-plus, including 16,976 centenarian voters. Also, there are 5.55 lakh persons with disabilities registered with the Election Commission," Mr Kumar said.

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According to Election Commission data, this is the highest-ever number of voters above the age of 100 in the state so far.

The poll body had earlier introduced the facility to Vote-from-Home (VFH) for people above 80 years of age and those with disabilities in the upcoming assembly elections in Karnataka.

People who cannot visit a polling station can avail this facility, the CEC said, adding that secrecy will be maintained and the entire process will be videographed.

There are 5.21 crore voters in Karnataka, including 2.59 crore women voters.

Karnataka, which has 224 seats in the Assembly currently, has 119 MLAs of the ruling BJP, while Congress has 75 and its ally JD(S) has 28 seats.

The ruling BJP, led by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, is putting in efforts to return to power and stressing on the Kannadigas issue, reservation to the Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities by scrapping a religion-based reservation for the Muslim community, a decision which the state government took recently.