Voters in pockets of Old City in a tizzy over polling booths

Hyderabad: The voters in some pockets of Old City which falls under Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency are caught in a dilemma as to where their vote falls. These pockets are adjacent to the Hyderabad Lok Sabha segment and the GHMC staff failing to distribute voter slips only added to the confusion. The activists want election authorities to create awareness among the voters ahead of elections.

Moreover, the confused voters who are traditionally inclined towards the AIMIM are clueless as to whom to vote for.

Each Lok Sabha constituency has seven assembly constituencies. The Hyderabad segment has Karwan, Malakpet, Goshamahal, Charminar, Chandrayangutta, Yakutpura and Bahadurpura. The Secunderabad segment has Nampally, Musheerabad, Amberpet, Khairtabad, Jubilee Hills, Sanath Nagar, and Secunderabad.

Though Nampally was carved out of Asif Nagar Assembly constituency before the 2009 elections as per Delimitation Act of 2002, still some voters are in confusion of their votes in Lok Sabha segments. It has been witnessed that the voters especially in pockets of Nampally and Tolichowki were confused in which Lok Sabha segment their vote falls.

Abdul Sattar, an activist said “The election officers must ensure that the voter has the information of their vote falls under which segment. Here few of the voters feel that the areas of Nampally fall under Hyderabad.”

According to the activist, there is a lot of misperception among voters in some areas of Nampally and surrounding pockets of Old city including Murad Nagar, Zeba Bagh, Asif Nagar, Syed Ali Guda, Sabir Nagar, Alapati Nagar, Dilshad Nagar, Mallepally, Bazar Ghat, Nampally, Habeeb Nagar, and Agha Pura, that these areas comes under Hyderabad Lok Sabha segment. But it falls in Secunderabad.

He said that his team is creating awareness among voters that these areas of Nampally come under Secunderabad. “To create awareness, on social media too, we are posting area names and their segments to ensure that the voters are aware of their vote in which segment it falls,” he added.

Mohammed Majid Ali, a resident of Asif Nagar said, “The traditional voters especially of MIM are in dilemma that their votes come under Hyderabad and they vote for MIM. However, these areas come under Nampally of Secunderabad segment and when they go to cast their vote to MIM on voting day, there is no candidate in Secunderabad from MIM,” he added. It is important that the voters must be conscious of these two segments.”

Moreover, the similar situation was witnessed in Tolichowki, as some parts of Tolichowki come under Karwan assembly (falls under Hyderabad) and some under Jubilee Hills assembly (falls under Secunderabad). Asif Hussain Sohail, a political analyst, said, “Over 50 colonies of Tolichowki and Shaikpet fall under Secunderabad Lok Sabha, however a majority of voters lack information where their vote falls.”

He said that the election authorities must take a note and focus on such issues where the voters find it difficult to identify which segment their vote falls. There are several such voters who have no knowledge of division, assembly and parliamentary segments and in which segment their vote falls in Lok Sabha elections. “There are several such areas which are divided in these two segments and the officers must create awareness and help the voters in understanding them that their vote falls under which segment,” added Asif Hussain.