Ranibennur minority voters boycott bypolls in Karnataka

A group of minority voters in Karnataka's Ranibennur constituency boycotted the by-elections on Thursday, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has cheated them.

Speaking in Kannada in a viral video, the Ranibennur voters belonging to a minority community complained about BJP, which is ruling the southern state.

The BJP candidate in fray for the legislative assembly seat in the by-election is Arun Kumar Gunthur.

Separately, BJP workers were caught on camera distributing money near Kalkere polling booth in Bengaluru's K.R. Puram constituency.

Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa took stock of polling in all the 15 constituencies.

Meanwhile, hashtag #DefeatTheDisqualified is gaining traction on social media, targeting the candidates who defected to different parties and are contesting the by-elections.

In Yeshwantpur constituency, an electorate of 4,80,953 voters, the Election Commission has set up pink polling booths to make it easier for women to vote.

A female voter in the constituency said more pink booths should be set up as they enable women to vote easily, avoiding standing for longer time.

In the same constituency, volunteers from the Swaabiman Mahila Trust, a non-governmental organisation, are knocking on the doors of the residents to move out and vote.

Women from the NGO are touring some wards in the constituency to personally invite people to come and vote.

The NGO has also made a list of old people who cannot walk to pick up for voting and drop them back.

( With inputs from IANS )