Voters induced with money & liquor

Vikarabad: With the curtains coming down on poll campaign, some politicos have resorted to other ways to influence voters. They are said to be busy implementing their already prepared plan of action by opening the secret treasure with bundles of currency notes. They, equipped with voters list, divided the currency in small packets to distribute them in villages.

They are a total of 50 candidates in the fray in Tandur, Vikarabad, Parigi and Kodangal constituencies. Of which, only 10 nominees conducted campaigns on a war-footing basis. They arranged makeshift offices and conducted road shows, bike rallies and street corner meetings. According to party sources, they spent lakhs of rupees for autos and four wheelers to mobilise people for rallies. The candidates paid Rs 200 to Rs 500 per person who came from villages to attend. According to an unofficial estimation, they spent crores of rupees so far. But, they were showing their daily expenditure in thousands to electoral officers. They rely on reliable persons to distribute money to the voters. In the previous elections, money was distributed to less percentage of voters secretly. But now, the trend has changed and everything is done openly.

The flow of money was seen breaching all the barricades set by the Election Commission. Surprisingly, in most of the places the voters were seen directly asking the candidates for their share. Irrespective of the parties and whoever conduct the rallies, the people stood in forefront to receive money from many leaders. To please the voters directly, some candidates were distributing the currency at some places. There are instances where women quarrelled with candidates who came to their villages to campaign, on dues they were yet to receive for attended meetings.

To avoid this type of embarrassment during the campaign, some politicos entrusted money distribution with reliable persons. They reside in lodges and houses of their relatives with list of voters. Their reliable persons allot money to the local leaders from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 per day to breakfast, meals and tea for the activities, and they actively take part in the campaign at towns and villages. But some of the local leaders aren’t spending all the cash. The candidates who received the information from the activists worried about their lost moment poll prospectus.

In Kodangal constituency, all parties were sharpening their strategies to garner votes. Along with currency, flood gates were opened to liquor. The leaders are distributing slips to voters for the voters to get liquor from the concerned wine shop by showing the slips. Some candidates are spending up to Rs one lakh in the areas covering under a polling station for the purpose. Lakhs of rupees were distributed to women self-help groups in the villages.