‘Look at us, we are oldies but…’, Sudha Murty after casting her vote; actors too line up to vote

BENGALURU: Author-philanthropist Sudha Murty on Wednesday cast her vote at a polling booth in Bengaluru’s Jayanagar for the Assembly election that commenced at 7 am this morning. Accompanied by her husband and Infosys founder Narayana Murthy, she encouraged voters to come and vote.

Speaking to reporters, Sudha Murty said, “I always tell the youth to come and vote and then you have the power to talk. Without voting, you do not have any power to talk. Please look at us. We are oldies, but we get up at 6 o’clock, come here and vote. Please learn from us. Voting is a sacred part of democracy”, the Padma Bhushan awardee said.

Her husband N R Narayana Murthy, after casting his vote, said, “It is the responsibility of the elders to sit down with youngsters and advise them why voting is important. That’s what my parents did”.

Urging people to exercise their franchise, Narayana Murthy said people do not have the right to “criticise” the governance if they do not cast their votes. “First, we vote and then, we can say this is good, this is not good. But if we don’t do that, then we don’t have the right to criticise”, he said while talking to the reporters. Murthy said he had returned this morning from abroad and had turned up to vote.

Co-founder of Infosys, Nandan Nilekani also cast his vote at a polling booth in Bengaluru’s Koramangala on Wednesday.

Among celebrities, actor Prakash Raj cast his vote at St Joseph’s School in Shanti Nagar, Bengaluru. “We’ve to vote against communal politics. We need Karnataka to be beautiful”, he said after casting his vote.

Several other actors also cast their votes on Wednesday. Amulya and her husband cast their votes at a polling booth in RR Nagar, Bengaluru. Ganesh, his wife, and actor Ramesh Aravind arrived at a polling booth in RR Nagar, Bengaluru to cast their votes.

Several key leaders including Union Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Ministers Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, K Sudhakar, B C Nagesh and Congress state president DK Shivakumar were among early voters

Actors Chandan Shetty, Duniya Vijay, Daali Dhananjay and Rishab Shetty.

Polling for Karnataka Assembly elections began at 7 am amid tight security today. Voting is being held for 224 assembly constituencies in Karnataka with 2,615 candidates in the fray. The fate of the candidates will be known on May 13, the day of the counting of votes. Polling is being held across 58,545 polling stations including auxiliary polling stations. (ANI)