The Election Commission of India on Wednesday reached out to transgender voters in poll-bound Karnataka, urging them to come forward and enrol themselves to exercise their franchise.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday announced the Assembly election schedule for Karnataka. The state will go to polls on May 10 and counting will take place on May 13.
While addressing a press conference, the CEC said that the election body has been taking several steps to make the polling inclusive. Talking about transgender persons, Kumar said that 41,312 third gender persons have registered with the Election Commission to vote in the upcoming elections. The state has over 42,756 transgender voters.
"There are some people who don't want to enrol themselves as transgender, if there are some people who have been left behind, they can come forward and fill a form marking the sensititives that they would want to get attached to. We will take a step forward and go ahead and add them," Rajiv Kumar said.
The Election Commission will set up polling stations for over 5.21 crore voters across the state's 224 constituencies, including 36 reserved for the candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and 15 reserved for the ones belonging to the Scheduled Tribes.
There are 9.17 lakh first time voters in the state. The CEC said that 41,432 voters, who would turn 18 between January 2 to April 1, would also be eligible to cast votes in the coming elections.
The registered voters in Karnataka also include 16,976 centenarian voters. The EC will make special outreach to the senior citizens, including the centenarians, to encourage them to cast votes.
The term of the 224-member Karnataka Legislative Assembly ends on May 24, 2023.