Candidates In Rayalaseema Persuading Migrant Workers To Return And Vote
Every vote in the closely contested rural elections is crucial. Contestants are calling over phone voters who have migrated for work, asking them to return before the polling day.
Kurnool:Candidates contesting the local body elections in Rayalaseema are making strenuous efforts to bring migrant workers back to their native places and vote.
Polling for the municipal elections is scheduled on November 1. The date for casting votes to elect members of the Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) and Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs) is November 5.
Lack of agricultural work, partly attributed to El Nino-related conditions, has forced many workers to move to other states or within AP in search of employment. However, their votes remain registered in their native villages.
Adoni, Pattikonda, Yemmiganur, Alur, and Kodumur constituencies have witnessed substantial migration this year. Over 70,000 voters from Kurnool district have moved away from their places for work.
A Telugu Desam MPTC candidate from Adoni has reportedly contacted voters working in Telangana, promising to compensate them for their daily wages and meet their travel expenses if they return to vote. Candidates contesting municipal chairperson posts in Adoni are also making repeated calls to migrant workers.
M. Subbarayudu, a construction worker in Bengaluru, said four votes belonging to his family are registered in Pattikonda constituency. “Candidates from both major parties have started calling us, asking us to return for polling,” he said.
According to estimates, nearly 70 per cent of migrant voters are believed to be voters of MPTC and ZPTC constituencies, while the rest are from municipalities.
Candidates of the Kurnool Municipal Corporation are reportedly arranging vehicles to bring voters from places, such as Raichur and Bellary in neighbouring Karnataka.
Contestants in Nandyal, Kadapa, Anantapur, and Sri Sathya Sai districts too are wooing migrant voters to return.
Independent MPTC candidate V.N. Malleshwara Rao from Adoni constituency said, “We will make every effort to bring our village voters back. Ensuring that they return and exercise their votes is our responsibility,” he declared.
