Karnataka: Private, cooperative staff in poll work frenzy

HUBBALLI: Employees of factories, private institutions and cooperative societies, owned by politicians, are working hard even on Sundays.
They are ensuring that their trusted voters are added to the voters’ list. They are making list of voters to show it to their leader. They are instructed to keep in touch with voters by attending to their grievances.
Gangadhar Patil, a private employee in Vijayapura, said that he got help from an employee of a cooperative bank, headed by a politician.
“My wife and father’s names were deleted from the voter list during a recent corporation elections. When a bank employee approached us, we shared the details and he followed it up till we got confirmation from the election commission. In fact, such trend has been helpful for citizens who were wandering from pillar to post to add our name in voters list, earlier,” he said.
Shashi, an employee of a sugar factory in Bagalkot district, asserted that his colleagues are working for the election from the past three months.
“We have made a list of our employees along with details of their native village and current residential address in the town,” he said.
“They are given voters’ list of their respective village/area. They are instructed to keep in touch with people in their vicinity and help them add or revise their details in the voters’ list. Once the election is declared, they will be assigned to involve in campaign in favour of our leaders,” he said.
Vishwanath Khanapur, president of the Gadag Zilla Vikas Vedike, said that employees of cooperative societies and banks, schools, colleges and factories are working without weekly offs and holidays in the region.
“In recent years, politically oriented employers were hiring youths from their own constituency and from their voters’ families,” he said.
Kalavati, an employee of a private in college in Hubballi, asserted that her institution has assigned her the work of tele calling.
“We get voters’ details from Booth Level Officers (BLO) and call deleted voters and verify their status. If needed, we coordinate between BLO and voters,” she shared.