Bengaluru (TNN): Over 5. 3 crore voters will be eligible to exercise their franchise in 58,545 booths to elect 224 members to Karnataka’s legislative assembly on May 10, the Election Commission revealed.

Manoj Kumar Meena, chief electoral officer (CEOKarnataka), said some 9. 1 lakh voters were added to electoral rolls since November 2022. With these additions, Karnataka now has 5,30,85,566 voters. At six lakh, Bengaluru Urban district, including Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) areas, added the highest number of voters.

Meena said, “The last date for inclusion of names in voter lists was April 20 and all eligible applications received by that date were added to the electoral roll. Currently, Karnataka has over 5. 3 crore voters who can cast their vote on May 10. ”

Of the total electorate population, nearly 2. 7 crore voters are men and over 2. 6 crore women. There are about 5k transgender voters in various parts of the state. Of the total electorate, 11. 7 lakh are youngsters (age group 18 -19 years) including 6. 4 lakh boys and 5. 3 girls.

The electoral populationalso has 5. 7 lakh speciallyabled voters and 12. 2 lakh voters above the age of 80 years. The NRI voters’ number has also gone up to 3,048 in Karnataka, Meena said.

With the addition of a considerable number of new voters, the ECI has also increased the number of polling stations across Karnataka — from 58,282 to 58,545. Incidentally, the state has 47,488 service voters (Armed forces, paramilitary).

“Belagavi Rural has the highest number of service voters at more than 20,000, while Bagalkot has more than 3,000. Jayanagar constituency in Bengaluru has the least number of service voters with just eight personnel,” Meena said.

Meena revealed the state has already achieved 100% photo electoral rolls.

“Identification of voters at the polling booth will be mandatory and all electors have been provided with electoral photo identity cards (EPIC),” he said. “The state has also achieved 100% success in EPIC distribution. We still need to distribute about 3. 5 lakh EPIC cards which will be done. The EC has already printed voter slips and guides which will be door delivered in a few days through our BLOs.