Bengaluru: Nearly 1.5 lakh citizens who sought to register themselves as voters in Karnataka will be missing out on exercising their rights this time around as they failed to submit their applications in time.

The Commission of India had set March 24 midnight as the deadline for Phase 2 and April 9 midnight for Phase 3 of the elections for submitting Form 6. Karnataka is voting in two phases on April 26 and May 6, respectively. However, 1.3 lakh applications for registering as voters in constituencies going to the polls in Phase 2 and 18,000 applications in constituencies going to the polls in Phase 3, came well after the deadlines. Venkatesh Kumar, Additional Chief Election Officer of Karnataka, rued that despite numerous awareness campaigns and programs, many people neglected to register themselves for the elections in time. “The Chief Election Office of Karnataka has spent over Rs 20 crore on SVEEP activities including advertisements and banners,” he said.

“Citizens in Bengaluru often blame lack of infrastructure and other facilities, while the majority of them do not even take voters registration seriously,” said a senior election officer. Tushar Giri Nath, Bengaluru District Election Officer, said this rush to register occurs towards the end of the election period, but many fail to realize they will miss out on voting because of delayed registration. “Those who submitted applications will be included in the electoral rolls but they will have to wait until the next election to cast their vote,” Kumar said.