According to sources transgender persons across Karnataka came out in large numbers to cast their vote in the Assembly elections held on May 12, particularly in Mangaluru constituency, where 40 members from the community came to vote together. Accordingly over 4,500 transgender persons had enrolled to vote in the Assembly elections this year. Meanwhile the number was a significant jump from the 2,100 who had enrolled in the state in 2013.
Earlier in Mangaluru, members of the transgender community voted and also posed for photographs, displaying their ink-stained fingers outside the booths. Meanwhile Nikil came early in the morning to cast her vote. She said "We are merely doing our duty as citizens of the country”. Accordingly Kajal, who voted in Udupi, also said she was there to exercise her basic right as a citizen of the country.
Kajal
said "We want to raise the issues of the transgender community in politics
and we want to do it ourselves. It has always been men and women candidates
taking part in elections. Why not transgender persons?". Moreover in Bengaluru, noted transgender
activist Akkai Padmashali cast her vote as a member of the community for the
first time.
