Vijayawada: A banner in Gudivada is attracting the town people and visitors from surrounding villages. The banner is in Telugu and states that the shop owner would not sell any product to those who came to buy with money received as bribe mo-ney to vote for a particular party.
The owner of Seeta Rama Radio Stores, Mr Y.V. Murali Krishna, is vexed with the selling of votes and voters falling prey to the politician's sops. Hence Mr Murali Krihna has hung a cloth banner in front of his shop. He started by sensitising the public by arranging two rickshaws with music and uses them to distribute pamphlets. With his initiative, he gets many appreciation calls as well as a huge number of threatening calls every day.
He has stated on the banner that he won’t sell any product to the persons who come with the money of a sold vote. (Vote Ammukunna Sommuki Maa sh-op nandu Vastuvulu Ammabadavu). “Such persons should not come to our shop to buy the products,” he said. He also urged the public to come to purchase with their hard earned money and the products would be sold without any profit, he said.
All officials are praising his initiative and the local progressives, intellectuals and educationalists have appreciated him. But Mr Murli Krishna also gets quite a few threatening calls regularly. Many of them are drunk but Mr Murali Krishna answers each with patience.
Mr Krishna said, “People are taking money to cast their vote which is illegal and unethical. In olden days, the candidates offered money to the poor to bring them to polling stations, but now a maximum of the voters are waiting all day for the bribe amount to cast their vote and they are taking money from all the parties that offer cash for vote.”
Mr Murali Krishna also said that he had started this type of campaign fr-om 2014 elections by taking permission from the State Chief Electoral Officer and then from the local RO. He also informed that he was spending up to Rs 25,000 for this campaign which commenced after nominations of the candidates were filed.
Mr Murali Krishna also said that one should come forward to do something and it may not show its impact on the spot but it would change the mindset of the voter in future, he added.
