- Saturday, May 04, 2024
Several of these people are from the southern state of Kerala which is going to polls on April 26.
By: Shubham Ghosh
SEVERAL Indian expats were rushing back home from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ahead of the second phase of the national elections on Friday (26) to participate in the biggest festival of democracy. Reports have claimed that 30,000 people from the southern Indian state of Kerala have flown back home for voting.
Twenty seats in Kerala, a state from which thousands go to the Middle East for work, will go to polling in the second phase. Some key leaders are contesting the election from Kerala and among them are Indian National Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor, India’s junior minister for information technology and electronics Rajeev Chandrasekhar, among others.
Eighty-nine constituencies in 13 states and Union Territories of India will vote in the second phase of the marathon election which will conclude on June 1. The results will be announced on June 4. Nearly a billion people are eligible to cast ballots in the elections that kicked off on April 19.
Indian politicians today are also seen wooing the expats ahead of elections and this polling has been no exception. Last week, a few politicians from Kerala such as Shafi Parambil and PMA Salam went to the UAE to rally support for themselves and their parties ahead of the second phase, Khaleej Times reported.
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Social groups in the UAE and bodies such as INCAS Kozhikode and KMCC Kozhikode purchased several flight tickets to Kerala last weekend for those who could not otherwise afford to fly to India for the elections. Vijay Thottathil, acting president of INCAS, said they gave away the tickets at discounted prices, the Khaleej Times reported.
He also informed that 500 people travelled to India in three flights for voting.
Noushad Thikodi, an entrepreneur based in Dubai, reached India last week for the polling. Chairman of the election committee of a political party in India who has remained busy with poll responsibilities, he told Khaleej Times that he would never compromise with his voting right as a citizen of India.
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“Being a board member of a political party, this is one of the most important times for us and we have been campaigning relentlessly,” he was quoted as saying.
Thikodi feels that national elections determine the future of the nation and anybody who can afford to travel to India should not waste the opportunity to exercise their voting right.
Anura Mathai, who was also preparing to travel to Kerala ahead of Friday’s voting, said one reason why expat Indians are politically active is their large presence in the UAE. He told the outlet that several gatherings were held over the last many weeks where political discussions took place and supporters and officials of many parties tried to influence the residents in their favour.
Fazal, a first-time voter who is travelling from Dubai to the southern state of Karnataka which is partially going to polling the same day, said he did not want to miss an important vote.
“With India standing at a crossroads and some people saying this could be one of the most important elections for the country, I wanted to make sure that I did my part to determine the future of the country,” the man, who hails from Karnataka, was quoted as saying in the report.
A travel agent in Dubai said that they had several requests for group travel bookings to India. There were also challenges since the airport in Dubai was badly affected by the recent rain but people chose to travel from other airports such as RAK International Airport in Ras Al Khaimah.
India, the world’s largest democracy, doesn’t have the facility for its diaspora citizens to vote from foreign countries. Anybody willing to cast ballots must fly back to the country to do so.
