Cash rules the polls as campaign picks up in TS

Hyderabad: With the elections just six days away, ‘Cash for Vote’ activity has picked up in the State. The Hyderabad residents, who have their vote in the districts, are in high demand. The main political parties are lured with a huge cash amount and transport facility to cast their vote on November 30. The parties were offering Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 to the voters to come to their Assembly segments on the polling day and exercise their adult franchise in support of them in the crucial elections.

As the survey reports predicted, the poll battle between the ruling BRS and the opposition Congress is a close contest in many Assembly constituencies. The contestants were leaving no stone unturned to woo the voters by offering them monetary benefits before the voting day.

A few rich contestants of the BRS and Congress from old Khammam, Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar and Karimangar districts were directly contacting their voters who were staying in Hyderabad and requested them to vote in their favour. The voters have been told that the party would provide transport facilities apart from money for supporting the candidates in the elections.

Some contestants are giving assurances to their voters about the long pending issues like laying of roads in their areas and improvement of civic amenities. The electors who rejected cash for vote will be given other options to support the contestants; leaders said that every vote is crucial to win the election this time as the surveys indicated no single party will get a comfortable majority to form the government in the State.

The political parties categorised the voters into two sections. The first one was the upper middle and middle classes and the second one was the poorer sections. The middle class voters will be provided transport facilities first and if they insist, money will also be given. The poorer sections will be offered money ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 5, 000 per vote with transport facilities. “Flexible packages are prepared for every section of voters to lure them, “Leaders said that Congress and the BRS were vying with each other to woo the voters. Though the BJP was one of the three main contenders in the election, leaders said that the saffron party was not ready to give money for votes.