BHATKAL/BENGALURU : Hundreds of people from Bhatkal, who are working in West Asia, are returning home just to exercise their franchise on May 7.
This, it is said to be in response to the appeal by Bhatkal Tanzeem. It is learnt that the travel expenses of these voters are met by the Tanzeem.
Taking a cue from Kerala, where a large number of residents who are working abroad, came down to vote, the Tanzeem has appealed to the people of Bhatkal, who are working abroad, to return home and exercise their franchise without fail. Bhatkal comes under the Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha constituency.
BJP candidate Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri said he was told that the Tanzeem pays the travel expenses of those who come to Bhatkal to vote. “We are keeping a tab on it. If we find any such thing, we will complain to the Election Commission,” he said.
However, Inayathullah Shabandari, president of Majlise Islah Wa Tanzeem, Bhatkal, said the Tanzeem has no role in this.
“Many of them are coming to India now just to vote. They are coming on their own, bearing the expenses themselves. Most of them are rich. Only for those, who are not financially sound but are willing to come to vote, there are Tanzeems and Jamaats representing our people across West Asia. They have agreed to help them to an extent. We have branches of the Jamaat in Dubai, Mumbai and other places. It is in the interest of democracy,” he told TNIE.
“We decided to appeal to our people after we saw Keralites working in West Asia participating in the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala in large numbers. About 40,000 people visited Kerala just to vote. We do not have such big numbers, ours will be in hundreds,” he said.
He said he is not sure how many will come and vote from West Asia. Around 15,000 people from Bhatkal are in Dubai, Jeddah, Qatar, Kuwait and other countries in West Asia. “We hope at least 10% of them will come and vote,” Inayathullah said.