Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (ANK/EP)

Mangaluru, May 12: The polling for Karnataka elections in Dakshina Kannada on Saturday May 12 was special with transgenders exercising their franchise for the first time.

As many as 100 transgenders in the city cast their votes.

Speaking to daijiworld, transgender Sanjana said, "This is the first time we are casting our vote in the district. A 100 of us are voting in the district today. Common people got independence 70 years ago, but it feels like our independence was today. This is a proud moment for us. Till today the society kept us away, but nowwe have our voter id as well as Aadhar card."

Among the 100 transgenders who voted, one was in Beltangady, 13 in Moodbidri, 8 in Mangaluru North, 56 in Mangaluru South, 13 in Ullal, six in Bantwal and three in Puttur.

In 2009, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had allowed transgenders to vote by marking their gender as 'other', and in 2014, even the Supreme Court granted them recognition as the third gender. In the voters' list of 2014 general elections, 28 transgenders had got enrolled all over India, but none of them came forward to cast their vote at the time of elections.

In 2013 Karnataka assembly polls, 2,100 transgenders enrolled in the voters' list, but only 49 cast their votes.