Angry at being ignored by a party while distributing money for votes, female voters stage a protest in Pedda Papaiahpalli of Huzurabad mandal on Thursday
KARIMNAGAR: The Huzurabad Assembly constituency on Thursday turned into a theatre for protests, mostly by angry women who were not fortunate enough to receive Rs 6,000 offered to each voter by a political party ahead of October 30 byelection in the segment.
The activists of a particular party had distributed money on Wednesday night to most of the voters but it so happened that some of them did not receive the ‘gift’. At the crack of the dawn, those who did not receive the money spilled onto the roads and staged protests, questioning how the party workers could ignore them while distributing the cash.
At many places, the women, who were furious at being “taken for a ride”, entered into an argument with the party workers, asking them whether they did not know that if they distribute money it should reach everyone. Leaving them out and distributing the manna to others was a gross injustice, they said. They squatted at the residences of sarpanches, asking them how they could allow such an injustice being done to them as they were the “nodal authority” for distribution of cash in villages.
Take for instance the ruckus at Gangaram in Veenavanka mandal where women thronged the sarpanch’s residence and demanded immediate payment. The police rushed in as tempers were running high and the situation became volatile. However, the women did not give up their struggle even though the police approached them, saying menacingly that they were not afraid of them and that they would fight to the finish. Only after a lot of effort, the local police managed to soothe the frayed nerves of the “wronged” women.
In Huzurabad nandal’s Katrapalli and Rampur villages too women voters rushed to the sarpanches’ residences and raised Cain. “Why is the sarpanch partial in favour of others? Our names are also there in the voters’ list. The party’s largesse should reach us also and why only a few,” one woman wanted to know.
At Pedda Papaiahpalli, several angry women staged a rasta roko. At Kamalapur mandal in Hanmakonda, women picketed the tahsildar’s office while Buzunur of Ellandakunta mandal witnessed high pitched “screams for justice.” At Kothaplli, Ippala Narsingapur, Kandugula and Katrapalli women were seen fighting for hours “for justice”.
As protests did not abate, the leaders of the political party which distributed money survived anxious moments, not knowing how the Election Commission of India (ECI) would react and whether money distribution would finally turn counter-productive to the very cause for which the onerous task was undertaken.
Meanwhile, Collector RV Karnan said that strike forces have been increased to move in and arrest those who indulge in influencing the voters with inducements. Even paramilitary forces have been deployed to handle any trouble, he said.
