Parties struggle to get migrant workers to vote

Kalaburagi: Political parties are having a tough time wooing migrant labourers who have deserted their villages in the hundreds in search of jobs following drought in north Karnataka.

The candidates feel it is difficult to persuade them to vote like they did in the panchayat or Assembly elections given the size of the electorate for parliamentary constituencies. Since they are unwilling to return before sowing resumes, migrant workers are likely to miss voting.

People in rural areas have moved to cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and coastal parts of Karnataka to work in brick kilns, paddy fields and construction sites where they are paid up to Rs 800 a day.

Kalagi-Kodli block Congress tanda cell president Anand Jadhav claimed that he had convinced around 8,000 migrant workers from Chincholi taluk to vote in Assembly elections last year by meeting them in different cities. Party leaders and candidates are not keen on wooing them this time as the Lok Sabha constituency is spread across eight Assembly segments with over 20 lakh electorate, he added.

“At least 100-150 people have migrated from each polling booth in rural areas,” Jadhav said.

“Half of the Lambani tandas have left their villages to work in big cities. Political parties are making no effort to approach them for voting,” he said

People in Kalaburagi, Raichur, Vijayapura, Gadag, Koppal and other parts of the state have migrated in large numbers.

A few politicians are trying to call them or are trying to get their relatives living in the constituencies to convince them.

“It is difficult to convince migrant labourers to return home at their expense to merely vote. Therefore, we are trying to ensure that people already living in the villages vote,” Gadag district Congress president and Ron MLA G S Patil said.

Leaders felt that migrant labourers are not as interested in Lok Sabha elections as panchayat polls where their decision will have a direct impact on the village.

They claimed that they cannot pay for the migrant workers’ travel given the large number of voters for Lok Sabha constituencies and also since the Election Commission keeps a close watch on the expenditure. Therefore, they have sought free inter-state train and bus services to all migrant labourers to visit their villagers to vote. Women can travel for free only on bus services within the state.

“I lost my tur crop last year after the rains failed. Therefore, I have been working at construction sites in Hyderabad where wages are assured once week. We can return only when sowing begins after one or two spells of rain. It is difficult to run my household through the MGNREGA scheme due to pending wages,” Mahadevappa Nagalavi, a migrant worker from Chincholi said.

Meanwhile, Kalaburagi SVEEP committee nodal officer Abdul Azeem claimed that efforts are being made to apprise migrant labourers about voting through awareness programmes at railway stations and bus stands besides appointing separate nodal officers in all 118 low voter turnout booths to ensure migrant workers vote.