Bengaluru: To promote voting in Bengaluru, a restaurant has offered free dosa, Mysore pak and fruit juice to voters.
The polling for the Karnataka Legislative Assembly election was held briskly from 7 am to 6 pm yesterday. Bengaluru recorded the lowest voter turnout compared to Karnataka as a whole in the last elections. In this case, restaurants in Bengaluru have announced offers to encourage voters.
In this case, Nisarga restaurant in Hudson Square, Bengaluru provided free dosa, Mysore Pak and watermelon juice to the voters from 7 am to 6 pm yesterday. Thus the voters went there and bought food and tasted it by showing their inked finger as proof of voting. Similarly, the restaurant also gave free cinema tickets to the first 100 voters.
To protect democracy.. Krishnaraj, the owner of Nisarga restaurant, said, “During the last election in 2018, we served dosa to 3,900 people. This number increased to 5 thousand 100 in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In this case, this year the Election Commission banned the provision of free food.
We appealed to the High Court of Karnataka against this and got permission. This time, customers started looking for our restaurant from 7 am. I was ready to serve food to 8 thousand people. Till 6 pm 5 thousand 300 people came and tasted Dosa, Mysore Pak and watermelon juice. This will increase voter turnout in Bengaluru and elect good rulers. “I am implementing this special program to protect our democracy,” he said.
Also, voters have been given 15 percent discount on Bengaluru Onlaw entertainment center fees. This offer is valid till May 12 only. Similarly, breakfast was provided free of charge at the Chalukya Cafe restaurant yesterday from 7 am to 11.30 am. The restaurant reported that 800 people ate free snacks.
