Telangana civic elections: There was a poll? Locals in Dabeerpura unaware

HYDERABAD: Dabeerpura’s Ward 30, the only ward under Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) going for election, saw a turnout of just over 27%. Investigation by TOI revealed that most residents were not even aware that the election was taking place.
In some cases, locals said that they had not even received voter slips while many opined that they had lost interest in polls as there had been no development in the past few years.They said they were aware of NOTA but chose to stay at home instead. “Unlike regular polls, we did not get voter slips. My family informed me this morning (about the election) but when I reached the booth, I could not find my name,” said Hussain who returned from his booth at Spring Dale High School in Noorkhan Bazaar as he could not find his name on the rolls. “I don’t even recall any political parties campaigning in the past ten days or so,” Hussain added.
Like Hussain, many said that there had indeed been no campaigning which led many to believe that Wednesday was like just any other working day. “I was not even aware that there was an election. It was only when I saw police personnel deployed in our locality did I come to know about it,” said Aleem Khadri, another resident.
Many slammed political parties and said that a lack of development was the reason behind the low turnout.
“There has hardly been any development in our area for years therefore I decided to stay away from polls this time,” said a resident of Panjetan Colony. She said that she also knew about the NOTA option but had decided to give voting a miss regardless. Of the over 50,000 voters in the ward, just 13,000 exercised their franchise. Representatives of political parties were seen trying to urge locals to come out and vote.