Vaishnavi, a first-time voter from Rajupalem in Andhra Pradesh, travelled all the way from Pune to cast her vote in her native place. She started on May 10 and reached on Sunday (May 12).
In the absence of direct transport, she and her parents flew to Chennai and from there to Nellore by train. “We reached Hyderabad six hours late on May 11 in Konark Express. No reservations in any train, we took a flight to Chennai from Hyderabad, and from there to Nellore in another train. We finally reached a few hours before polling time,” said Vaishnavi, who studies in Pune.
“I planned to go for voting but looks like it is difficult. All the trains are packed, and bus tickets are very expensive. I will miss it this time,” said Kattula Laxmi, who owns a tiffin centre and is a registered voter in Rajahmundry.
As the bus ticket prices match air fares and train coaches are packed between various destinations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, a number of electors are likely to miss exercising their right to franchise.
Hyderabad is home to a large of voters from Andhra Pradesh, who do odd jobs, and run street-side food counters selling everything from evening snacks to early-morning idlys and dosas outside the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences. It is this section that is likely to miss in the absence of easier transport options and no word about compensation for voting a particular party.
“We get money for travelling and voting. But this time, my children haven’t heard anything about that. The ticket prices are also very high,” says Satyavathi, a senior citizen who is an elector from Rajulapalem near Rajahmundry. Satyavati gave up the thought about going to vote after discovering that the bus ticket prices topped ₹5,000.
But not everyone has given up, as the word about tight contest between YSRCP and alliance of Janasena Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and Telugu Desam, has become common knowledge.
Among those who plan to keep a date with the EVM is P. Sandeep, a photographer, who has booked a flight ticket for Monday morning to Vizag from Hyderabad after shelling out ₹5,700. “I will reach just in time for voting. If the contest was not so close, I wouldn’t have bothered,” he said.
