Khammam: The candidates in Palair byelection are searching for a strategy to woo women voters.
There are more women voters registered in the segment, than men. There are 96,469 women voters against 93,127 male voters. Congress candidate, R. Sucharita Reddy, who is the lone woman candidate out of 13 candidates, is making an effort to get the votes of women.
The names of former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are referred in her speeches. She planned to involve her relatives particularly women to explain the circumstances that brought her to the fray; how her husband MLA Venkat Reddy used to show interest in solving the problems of women.
To this end, her four daughters Mamata, Harita, Laxmi and Lohita have started to campaign in various villages under the Palair segment. They give pasupu and kunkuma to the women voters. On the other hand, the ruling party candidate and minister for roads and buildings, T. Nageswara Rao is planning to involve women ZPTCs, MPTCs of other areas apart from Palair segment, to meet women voters.
Zilla parishad chairperson, G. Kavita had already joined the campaign and was explaining programmes such as Kalyana Lakshmi, women’s reservation in market committees and widow pensions being implemented by the TRS government. The candidate, who won the hearts of women in the election, would get more votes in the election.
CPM candidate Pothineni Sudarshan has been making whirlwind tours in the segment and meeting women. The party women’s wing activists were entrusted with meeting women during their election campaign. The unsolved problems of women under TRS regime such as not extending Aasara pensions to all women and drinking water problems are being focused upon in their campaign.
Meanwhile, distribution of money to the voters commenced in Palair segment. About Rs 69 lakh have been seized at various places. The cops recovered Rs 21 lakh from a vehicle at Tiruma-layapalem-Dammaigudem Crossroads and another Rs 1 lakh at Naikangudem under Kusumanchi mandal.
Apart from it, another Rs 48 lakh were found in various places in Nelakondapalli and Khammam Rural mandals. Sources said that most of money belonged to the ruling party. Collector said that the money will be returned to the persons if they produce substantial evidence pertaining to the money.
