In the 224 Karnataka Assembly constituencies, the number of seats in the state where women voters outnumber men has jumped to 112 or 50 per cent of the total seats, according to the latest electoral rolls data. In the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections, the figures stood at 67 or 30 per cent, reports The Indian Express.
The 112 seats are largely in rural areas spread across 28 of the 34 districts in the state.
These districts are Bagalkot, Bangalore Rural, Belgaum, Bellary, Bijapur, Chamarajnagar, Chikkaballapur, Chikkmagalur, Chitradurga, Dakshina Kannada, Davangere, Dharwad, Gadag, Gulbarga, Hassan, Kodagu, Kolar, Koppal, Mandya, Mysore, Raichur, Ramanagaram, Shimoga, Tumkur, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Vijayanagara and Yadgir.
In the past five years, the state’s overall gender ratio of electors, or the number of women voters per 1,000 men voters, too, has improved from 973 to 989.
According to the electoral data list, there are 2.67 men voters and 2.64 women voters for the upcoming May 10 elections.
While the Mangalore City South constituency has the highest gender ratio of electors (1,091 women per 1,000 men), the Mahadevapura seat has the lowest (858 women per 1,000 men).
In all, a total of 140 seats have a higher gender ratio of electors than the state’s overall average of 989.
Speaking about the gender ratio, Karnataka Special Officer (Elections) Surya Sen A V told The Indian Express that it needs to be seen in the context of population, migration patterns and the election authorities’ drive to “clean the electoral rolls”. He explained that in the coastal areas, which also includes the Mangalore City South seat, there is a migration of men abroad for work so the gender ratio in the population itself would be higher.
