Munugodu bypolls in Telangana: 'Note for vote' becoming people's 'right'

“Your vote is your right, do not sell it,” Election Commission of India urged voters by printing these lines in Telugu on big banners across Munugodu.

However, the eye-catching billboard messages in bold letters advising the constituents not to be influenced by money, liquor etc. seem to be having little or no impact on the voters, who are ready to use their franchise on Thursday.

In the high stakes bypolls to the Assembly constituency in Telangana, money seems to be the deciding factor for many voters to favor a party.

47 candidates are in the fray here, including Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, the sitting Congress MLA who resigned and is now a BJP candidate, TRS's Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy, Congress's Palvai Sravanthi Reddy and the independents.

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As one travels in the constituency of 2.42 lakh voters, apparently the eager wait is for the inducement money that some political parties are expected to begin distributing from Tuesday evening onwards, once the poll campaigning officially ends. In some places, it reportedly began Monday night.

While it is being said that some contestants are going to offer up to Rs 30,000 per vote in neck and neck areas, “the reasonable expectation” locally is Rs 5,000 to 10,000.

Unlike during the general elections when voters speak their mind out, in Munugodu, even the rural women, elderly are tight-lipped about their preference.

“(That is because) everyone is expecting money from every candidate. 'Note for vote and who gives more' is the final decider,” a trader in Munugodu town said, while an auto driver in Shivannagudem village, 30 Kms away in Marriguda mandal, echoed the view.

Kalluri Yellamma (43) form the Goud community, classified as backward caste, in Bodangiparthi village of Chandur mandal is appreciative of the K Chandrasekhar Rao government because of the welfare schemes. Her family is a beneficiary of – Rythu Bandhu (annually Rs 10,000 per acre farm input incentive), Rs 2,016 monthly pension for toddy tappers, and Rs one lakh Kalyana-Lakshmi support for girl's wedding.

But what if the rival party hands her hefty cash for vote? “Ill decide then...maybe we'll divide the four votes in our family between the two parties,” she says unapologetically.

She seems to have no reason to regret as the “note for vote” scourge has been spreading election after election in Telangana.

Ahead of the Huzurabad bypolls last year, female voters in some villages staged protests and held road blockades alleging "unfair" cash distribution by a political party.

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Some had threatened the Panchayat, ward level party functionaries of “unfavourable outcome” if their “rightful share” is not handed over by the night before polling day.

In Munugodu too, some voters suspect the local leaders of pocketing wades of currency notes sent by the top leaders, while offering them a pittance.

Plucking cotton, the main farm yield in the area, A Kishtamma (65) and Mallika Devasari (30), from the Scheduled Communities, felt cheated by a party-man who took them for a campaign trail “with a promise of Rs 500 but were handed Rs 300 at the end of the day.”

So, on Monday, the two, along with some more women, were back in the fields to pluck cotton for which they get paid Rs 300 a day. “Now, who knows what amount is being sent for us by the candidate?” they wonder.

Some voters are anxious over the many check-posts the ECI had set up to stop cash flow into the constituency. Telangana chief electoral officer Vikas Raj said that Rs 6.8 crore cash was seized till Monday, in connection with the bypolls.

The impact of the TRS MLAs “bribing for defection into BJP” episode, if any, is that some of the voters are now expecting more money for their allegiance since “an MLA's loyalty costs hundreds of crores for the parties.”