With just hours left for polling in the 12 Assembly segments in the Telangana region, the Telangana Rastra Samiti (TRS) is desperately trying to increase its poll percentage.
Past experience has shown that only a high poll percentage can boost the chances of the TRS. Any drop in the voter turnout will be disastrous for the party that has literally forced this byelection.
Thousands of vehicles have been reserved in Korutla, Dharmapuri, Sircilla and Vemulawada constituencies to ferry people to polling booths. But with the agricultural season at its busiest, farm workers are not willing to lose a day’s wage, which amounts to Rs 200 per day now given the acute shortage of labour.
“The TRS has already made it clear that it will not pay for the votes. How can we miss our work waiting in queues to vote?” asks Mr Narsimhulu, a farm labour in Sircilla.
Moreover, with the return of the ballot paper, polling in the five Assembly constituencies will take up a lot of time. There are more than
64 candidates in the fray and the polling agent for each candidate has to be satisfied that each voter is genuine. In the last elections, Huzurabad recorded a polling percentage of 71.34, followed by 66.96 per cent in Korutla, 65.90 per cent in Vemulawada, 65.71 per cent in Dharmapuri, and 64.49 per cent in Sircilla.
The TRS candidates won in all five segments. The polling percentage was only 39.8 in Nizamabad Urban from where the BJP candidate won.
The Congress and Telugu Desam too have a strong voter base in the region with nearly 30 per cent of the traditional vote bank.
Meanwhile, the district superintendent of police, Mr N. Sivasankar Reddy, has announced that the police will take stern action against political parties that transport voters.
*DC
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