Huzurabad bypoll: Biryani, wine and full fuel tanks keep voters in high spirits

KARIMNAGAR: It looks like the constituents of the Huzurabad Assembly segment are on a gravy train ahead of Dasara and the byelection, which is scheduled for October 30. The TRS and BJP, the main contenders for Huzurabad seat, are vying with each other to woo the voters with innovative methods. It is large-scale Food and Beverage (F&B) wooing, say those involved.

Leaders of each community affiliated to these two parties are busy keeping their brethren in good humour, organising community lunches at houses or, better still, in farmhouses or in orchards where they are pampering their gastronomic predilections with dainty food, most often piping hot biryanis. These lunches are preceded by booze parties. At the expense of the political parties, residents are celebrating Dasara with an election flavour. 

But these revelries are held in secret lest the hawk-eyed election authorities swoop in on them and spoil the broth midway. Sometimes, if the crowd is small, parties are organised in houses without outsiders getting to know knowing about the merry-making going on inside.

Food and drinks apart, political parties are also trying to win youth over by filling up their bikes with petrol. There are indications that more benefits are being lined up as the polling day draws closer.

Already, arrangements are being made for door delivery of liquor. Community leaders and youth would ensure that the "contraband" reaches the "consumer" without the authorities knowing anything about it.

Says Srinivas, a youngster of Veenavanka village: "What is wrong if I attend a party organised by a political party? This would not change my decision as to who I should vote for."

According to him, some BJP leaders are issuing tokens to youngsters and asking them to go to a specific wine shop and collect a full liquor bottle for free, for use for four. Indications are that before the D-day arrives, the political parties would pamper the voters with more imaginative schemes in which liquor will play a major part, sources say.

'What's wrong in attending a party?'

"What is wrong if I attend a party organised by a political party? This would not change my decision as to who I should vote for," says Srinivas, a youngster of Veenavanka village