HYDERABAD: As the last day of enrolling oneself as a voter comes to a close on November 9, a slow and steady number of techies who are non-native residents of Hyderabad are transferring their voter ID cards to the city challenging the popular notion that techies don’t vote and hence are not a critical voter base to appease.
In a bid to have a say at the place of their residence, they are transferring their constituency from their previous place of stay in another state to Hyderabad. “I initially voted in Bengaluru. In fact that was the place I got my first voter ID card made. But around last year, when I shifted to Hyderabad, I changed my constituency to Serlingampally,” noted Vijay Ivaturi, an IT professional.
Some aware citizens from the city have also cancelled their previous voter ID cards and made new ones. “I shifted from Pune and had voted over there previously. When I shifted to Hyderabad, I cancelled the previous one and made a new one here which allowed me to vote for 2014 elections and Municipality elections,” noted Ramanjeet Singh, an IT professional.
The main reason they say for this is to assert their voice as the urban issues plaguing the rapidly growing west zone get ignored due to lack of representation. Incidentally, Serlingampally constituency has the highest number of voters across the State, with over 5.49 lakh citizens on the electoral rolls. It remains to be known how many would actually come out to vote as historically urban centres show dismal voting rates with parts of Bengaluru having only 49% voter turnout against the State average of 70%. According to the EC norms, anyone can opt to transfer their constituency in order to cast their vote in their present place of stay. One can easily find the form 6 on the National Voters’ Service Portal website which is applicable if one wants to change from one constituency to another.