Kurnool Tops Sate in Registration of Young Voters

Kurnool: New voters of Kurnool district between the age group of 18–19 years turned out in overwhelming numbers to register themselves and exercise their franchise in the forthcoming twin assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh in a couple of months.

According to officials, the maximum number of new voters who have registered in AP are from the Kurnool district. Initially, 13,474 of the youth applied to vote. But within a fortnight, their number had reached 44,273 by January 22.

In fact, the Kurnool district administration focused on enrolment of young voters this year. They organised awareness sessions in colleges and universities, and conducted rallies, so that the public would understand the importance of voting and register themselves as voters.

The campaign led to an upsurge in youth who applied to register themselves as voters. Their number, which was only 13,474 by January 5, shot up by 30,799 within a fortnight, increasing to 44,273 on January 22, the date for preparing the final voters’ list.

Collector G. Srijana said Kurnool district has enrolled the highest number of young voters in the state during special summary revision. She attributed this success to the sincere efforts of officials and staff.

A. Kartik from the C-Camp area, doing his second-year degree, expressed his happiness over becoming a new voter. He is enthusiastic about receiving his EPIC card from the government. K Mani Mala of Venkataramana Colony, pursuing an accounting course, said is ecstatic about going to cast her vote for the first time in her life.

Further, this year, senior citizens above 80 years and persons with disabilities of above 40 per cent will be allowed to vote from the comfort of their home after applying to the returning officer of the constituency for the same through Form-12D.

The system had first been introduced during the Karnataka elections.

Kurnool district has 24,478 octogenarian voters and 22,863 persons with disabilities. Officials suggested that these voters have to submit their 12D forms within the stipulated time after the notification for elections is issued.

Interestingly, there are only 111 NRI voters across the district. The total number of voters in the district is 20,14,794, 10,19,597 of them female and 9,94,885 male.