Parties work hard to enlist support of migrated voters

Srikakulam: Normally, mobilising migrated voters is considered crucial for local bodies’ elections, but this time party are giving importance to net the votes of this people for Assembly and Lok Sabha elections too.

Candidates of YSRCP and TDP-JSP-BJP alliance are fearing that votes would be splits due to presence of Congress candidates. Moreover, both sides are facing internal rifts which may result in loss of votes.

In order to enlist the support of migrated workers, candidates are organising a series of meetings with village, ward in-charges, booth conveners and agents and asking them to collect details of migrated voters from their respective localities. Srikakulam district is known for migrations and people from here are migrating across the globe. Both skilled and un-skilled workforce are migrating from Srikakulam to Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry, Vijayawada, Gudivada, Bhimavaram, Undi, Aakiveedu, Machilipatnam, Channai, Hyderabad, Bangolore, Mumbai, Kolkata and other seeking livelihood. In addition, marine fishermen also migrated from Srikakulam to Mangalore, Veeraval in Gujarath, West Bengal and other areas. A total of 104 fishermen villages are situated all along the sea coast in the district in the 11 mandals from Itchapuram to Ranastalam.

In the wake of May 13 election, candidates are making arrangements with their local leaders to bring back the migrant voters. For this purpose, they are booking trains, buses for two-way journeys and also decided to engage travel vehicles and mini buses from different cities situated from Visakhapatnam to Vijayawada.

In every village, for every 1,000 voters, about 350 voters i.e. 35 per cent of voters are migrated.

Enlisting the support of migrated voters is becoming a tough task for the main parties as they need to work hard and spend heavily for the purpose.