With campaign over, parties zero in on booth management

The three major parties, the ruling Congress, opposition BJP and the BRS have shifted their focus to micro-level booth management during the 48-hour silence period to bring voters to polling booths and ensure they cast votes in their favour.

Parties are also trying to lure voters with cash and liquor. They are taking all the steps to ensure that the public support they received during campaigning translates into votes.
Though liquor shops and bars were sealed from 6 pm on May 11 until polling concluded at 6 pm on May 13, reports of local leaders stocking up liquor stocks in advance surfaced in several districts for distribution ahead of polling.

Soon after the campaigning came to an end, top leaders of three major parties reviewed strategies for micro-managing the vote process. They have issued strict instructions to their booth-level teams to ensure maximum voting and keep an eye on the movements of rival parties on distribution of cash and liquor to lure voters, any poll malpractices that may happen and complain to Election Commission and police officials immediately.

The TPCC has kept its booth level team on high alert. It asked party leaders and workers in every polling booth to coordinate with booth level teams to ensure a heavy and smooth polling.

With reports of neck and neck contest between Congress and BJP in several constituencies and a triangular contest between Congress, BJP and BRS in few other constituencies, all the parties are giving utmost importance to ensure higher polling percentage with a strong belief that every vote counts.

All the parties have trained their workers to keep an eye on identification of voters and the functioning of EVMs. A state

level control room has been set up in Gandhi Bhavan, the Congress state headquarters, to monitor the polling process. The control room will keep in touch with party's candidates as well as the national control room in Delhi. “During the tour I sensed public support for the alliance but it is very important that it translates into votes,” TPCC working president Mahesh Kumar Goud said.

All the major parties have formed booth level teams and trained to deal with developments that may unfold on Polling Day. These teams are reaching out to voters and trying to mobilise them to polling booths on Monday to ensure a decent polling percentage is reached. They are also reaching out to voters who migrated to other towns, cities and states, arranging to and fro transportation facilities for them to bring them to polling booths and ensure they cast votes without fail.