In high spirits
Crores were spent for MP, MLA polls but turnout was less, say babus
Government officials, who had been deputed to oversee the series of elections in the city, were taken aback by the long lines outside liquor shops on Wednesday. They said that despite providing tents for shade, drinking water, mobile toilets, ambulances, ramps for the specially-abled, and spending about `100 crore for Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly elections, not even 50 per cent would turn up to vote. Yet, without any of these facilities, and in the midst of a pandemic, hundreds queued up to buy liquor outside all liquor shops in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits, unmindful of the scorching heat and the rain that fell later!
A special officer who was deputed on election duty during the Legislative Assembly election of 2018 and Lok Sabha election in 2019 and now is on Covid-19 duty, said in an awed voice: “Believe it or not, we had toiled for a year to prepare final list of electoral rolls, routine special summary revisions, giving training sessions to about 30,000 staff of the municipal department, schools and others, explaining about the operation of electronic voting and voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT)s, and have conducted awareness campaigns to increase the voting percentage to at least 50 per cent in the GHMC limits. However, to our surprise voting percentage did not cross 45 per cent in both the elections. Over 30,000 police personnel toiled for smooth conduct of the elections.”
The polling percentage in the Secunderabad parliamentary constituency was 39.2 per cent and in Hyderabad, 39.49 per cent. Voter turnout for the Legislative Assembly elections was 43 per cent in 24 assembly constituencies in GHMC limits.
“I was astonished when I saw the kilometre long queues on Wednesday morning at 8 am outside liquor stores. I was watching television to monitor public movement as part of my Covid-19 duty. I could see scores of people all through the day standing in queues with uttermost commitment, despite the scorching noon sun and rain later in the evening,” the official said.
He said that tipplers did not give a hoot for Coronavirus spread, even though the GHMC area has been declared a red zone by the Centre.
“In a lighter vein, I think government should offer a liquor bottle to each voter to exercise their franchise on polling day to increase the voting percentage not only in Hyderabad but also in all metro cities across the country!” he joked. Unable to buy liquor for the past 40 days or more due to the Covid induced lockdown, people had started queuing from 6 am until the shops closed at 6 pm. Police personnel who had been guarding check posts since the lockdown, were deputed to liquor shops to ensure social distancing and law and order.