– Mohammed Atherulla Shariff
Are Bengaluru voters lazy or lucky, interpretation depends on one’s perception. There has been a notable poor turnout at polling booths in the city in the previous elections. Probably with this in back of the mind, some hoteliers, pubs and amusement centres have come out with attractive offers to motivate voters.
City voters will be treated with complimentary food and beverages at select hotels, as a gesture to encourage voter turnout during Lok Sabha polls on April 26.
Bengalureans can flaunt their inked fingers after voting and enjoy perks. Nisarga group of hotels across the City will offer free khali benne dose from 7am to 6pm, along with butter dosa, ghee ladoo and juice for voters. During 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the hotel served 5,100 voters with benne dose.
Similarly, Udupi Ruchi outlets in the City will provide free mocktails to voters. According to the Bruhat Bengaluru Hoteliers Association (BBHA) President, PC Rao, “We aim to boost the voter turnout in the City by providing free complimentary food.”
A few pubs are offering 20-30 percent on their drinks and some are offering free beers for the first 50 guests on the day after the election, on Saturday.
There’s a plan to reward the first 100 first-time voters with free tickets for Kannada movies on Election Day. On Tuesday, Karnataka High Court permitted BBHA and others to offer complimentary food for voters, following their petition in 2019. This decision came after Nisarga Grand Hotel had approached the Karnataka HC when the BBMP chief commissioner withdrew permission to provide complimentary food to voters in 2019.
Additionally, Wonderla Amusement Park on Mysuru Road will offer a 15 percent discount on tickets to customers displaying their voting mark. Vanitha, senior manager of Wonderla, said, “After casting votes, families often have a free time to kill. To encourage them to vote and to engage them, we are giving the discount from 26 to 28 April.
