It is not an achievement for them nor is it anything remarkable to flaunt their ink-marked index fingers on social networking sites. It is just a normal act of a ‘living person’ enabling them to wield power to question their representatives without any hesitation. Above all, for them voting at every election is a duty that cannot be shirked under the pretext of lack of basic amenities.
It is not a normal drive for as many as 800 voters in Pedda Lanka, Chinna Lanka, Kolliper Lanka and Lingapalem Lanka — small habitations bordering Krishna-Guntur districts and situated in Krishna river. For them casting a vote means travelling a distance of 15 km in a coracle to reach nearby polling stations in Harishchandrapuram, Borupalem and Dondapadu villages in Guntur district. But this strain does not dissipate their spirit to choose their representative at every election.
Covered by water on three sides, these villages have road connectivity only on one side which leads to Ibrahimpatnam in Krishna district. However, as they are in the jurisdiction of Guntur district, the residents have to bear the brunt of commuting by boats to reach Tulluru mandal for any government-related work.
The excitement was palpable among the electors belonging to 450 families residing in these villages on Wednesday as they came in hordes to cast their votes to elect their representatives for Tadikonda Assembly and Guntur Lok Sabha constituencies. Braving all odds and with their children in tow, they turned up at polling stations to cast their vote.
Parvatamma (85) of Pedda Lanka hardly remembers how many times she had voted at elections. But she has no doubt that she voted in every election that she can recall.
“What is the point in staying away from voting? Only dead persons do not vote. Tomorrow we can question the leaders about our problems if we vote,” said the 85-year-old woman as her frail fingers reached out to the coracle to head back to her village after casting vote at Borupalem village. With the new members adding to the numbers of electors in the village of Pedda Lanka in every election, headman Dasari Veera Babu revealed that there were 300 voters in his village. To ensure that everyone votes, they have hired five special boats for the purpose to shuttle between polling booth and their village.
“We ensure that everyone in the village use their voting right to elect a good representative. We believe that if we vote in large numbers we can demand anything from our MLA and MP. So, we have hired five special boats to ferry electors in village at the cost of `2,000 and the officials have promised us to reimburse the expense,” says the chief of the village sitting on the bank of the Krishna river.
Interestingly, though Veera Babu claimed that the expenses incurred on ferrying the voters to and fro would be borne by the government, a follower of the headman told Express that local leaders of both the YSRC and the TDP vied with each other to do so, in the hope of garnering their votes. This apart, local leaders of both the parties competed with each other in providing food and other facilities for the electors from these island villages during their brief stay at the polling stations.
However, this is not an isolated case related to Guntur district. In Krishna district too, islanders from Edurumondi, Kishnapuram, Gollamanda, Nachugunta and Elichetladibba inaccessible villages in the Avanigadda Assembly constituency thronged the polling stations nearby to cast their votes.
Similarly, electors from VV Lanka and Bridge Lanka, island villages in East Godavari district exercised their franchise with great enthusiasm.
For democracy
Some hired five special boats by spending `2,000 for ferrying the electors to and fro
Residents of some islands in the Krishna brave the odds to vote at every election just to strengthen democracy