‘Vote first, criticise later’: Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murthy after casting votes

Author and educationist Sudha Murthy and her husband, Infosys founder Narayana Murthy, cast their votes for the Karnataka Assembly elections in Bengaluru early in the morning on Wednesday, May 10. The couple cast their votes at the BES Evening College of Arts & Commerce at Jayanagar. Polling for Karnataka elections is underway across the state from 7 am on Wednesday.

After casting their votes, when asked about the importance of voting, Sudha said, “If you want to bring changes in democracy, or if you want to elect the right leader, you should vote. Don't ask who you are voting for, why you are voting. Everyone has their own opinion and everyone should vote.” She insisted that people can vote early and then carry on with their work.

When asked if the discourse in Karnataka had moved from development to caste politics, Sudha responded by saying that she was not from a very political family and that it was everyone’s duty as a citizen to vote. “Voting is a sacred part of democracy, young voters look at us and learn. If there are no voters, then it's not a democracy at all. Respect voting and exercise your power in case you want change or want your projects to be implemented,” she said.

Narayana Murthy said that voting was the duty of every citizen and it should be exercised with a lot of care. In a message to young voters, he said, “Unless we exercise this responsibility diligently, I do not think we will have the right to speak about progress or the lack of it. Therefore, first we vote, then we can say this is good, this is not good. If we don't vote, then we have no right (to criticise the government).”

He further added that his hope for his grandchildren was that Karnataka would be one of the best places to pursue their education and career, and add value to their lives. “Even the remotest village should have access to decent healthcare and nutrition,” he said, adding that he hoped that the next generation will have a better life.

Election is underway in 58,545 polling stations in the state. The total number of voters are 5.30 crore among which 2.66 crore are male and 2.63 are female voters. There are 4,927 transgender persons in the state who are eligible to vote in this election. The state has 16,914 voters who are centenarians. The voters aged between 30 to 40 years (1.41 crore) and 40 to 60 years (1.89 crore) are dominant voting groups. There are 11.71 lakh voters in the age group of 18 to 19 years.

The Karnataka Assembly has 224 seats, and a party or coalition needs to cross the halfway mark of 112 seats to form the government.