In the hub of migrant workforce, voters from outside seek mechanism to cast ballot

Ludhiana: As the election commission seeks to increase the voter turnout, a sizable number of votes of private-sector workers and daily wagers in Ludhiana gets lost as they cannot go to their native places to cast their ballot.Neither are they eligible to vote through postal ballots, a demand which they had been raising for a long time now. An official from the civil administration said being the industrial hub of Punjab, Ludhiana has a substantial vote base, stressing that the Election Commission of India should devise a mechanism to ensure that such voters can also exercise their franchise through postal ballots, just the way some eligible few do.

The official, who is involved in conducting these Lok Sabha elections, said that Ludhiana has a fairly large number of workers hailing from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and other states. “There are a number of electors, including business professionals, daily wage earners such as street vendors and tea stall owners, and those in private sector and financial institutions, whose votes are lost as they cannot go to their native places to cast their ballot. There is no option like postal ballots for them to exercise their franchise. The poll panel should include such voters in the list of those eligible to cast their vote through postal ballots,” he added.When contacted to seek her comments on this issue, deputy commissioner-cum-district election officer Sakshi Sawhney said, “Such voters are not eligible for postal ballot, unless on election or other listed duty. This time, the election commission has recognised that journalists are on election duty. The panel notifies a list of people who can vote via postal ballot.”“But they are allowed to go and vote in their home town as they are eligible for a paid holiday. They could shift their votes by filling Form 8,” she suggested. Meanwhile, many such voters are of the opinion that the election commission should expand the scope of postal ballots and add them to the list of eligible ones.Talking to TOI, Raja Ram, 45, who hails from UP’s Gorakhpur and had been running a fruit vend in Sherpur area here for years, said, “Four members of my family, including my wife, brother Ameer Lal (who runs a tea and samosa shop), and sister-in-law, are registered as voters in our home town, but cannot go there as we work here. If there was any system to cast postal votes from here, we would have exercised our franchise.” Gorakhpur goes to poll on June 1.Chipping in, Niranjan Kumar, 50, a native of Gonda district in UP, who runs a juice cart in Ludhiana, said that he, along with his wife Sunita, did cast their votes during the panchayat elections in their state, but cannot go to vote on May 20. He added that the main reason for that was the huge rush in trains, which forced them to cancel their plans. He, however, added that they would have cast their vote through the postal ballot system, if such an option existed for them.A private-sector banker from another state, who had been residing in the city, said that they do feel good to cast their vote, but miss the chance due to work commitments.He also reiterated the demand of a postal ballot system for voters like him in the private sector, which he said would increase the voter turnout as well.As per Shamsher Ahmed, an advocate and political leader from Bihar, who lives in Jamalpur area of Ludhiana, there must be thousands of such people in the district, who are registered as voters in their native states, but cannot travel due to various reasons. He appealed to the election commission as well to make such voters eligible to use postal ballots.