Around 85% of the nearly 20 lakh fisherfolk voters in the State’s 62 coastal mandals in Andhra Pradesh are likely to cast their votes on May 13. About 50,000-60,000 of them are migrants living in Odisha, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Telangana, and they all are gearing up to return to their hometowns to vote, say sources.
“Yes, the Andhra fisherfolk from Odisha are ready to go to their State to vote. They mostly live in Puri, Ganjam, Kendrapada, and Jagatsinghpur in our State,” K. Yellayya, vice-chairman of the National Fisherfolk Forum (NFF), Ganjam district, Odisha, told The Hindu over the phone on Wednesday.
On the other hand, Arjili Das, general secretary of NFF from Visakhapatnam, said that his community people are very active in voting in the elections, compared to others. About 85% of the 20 lakh voters in the 62 coastal mandals, including 23 from north coastal Andhra Pradesh, will surely turn out to cast their votes regardless of the weather conditions on the polling day.
“Almost 65% of active voters tend to stick with their favourite political parties. No one can influence them to change their preference as they are hardcore followers of their political icons, be it Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy or N. Chandrababu Naidu. However, the remaining 20% are neutral, and it is difficult to predict which way they would swing. Political parties attract these voters with money and liquor,” said Mr. Das.
Further, Mr. Das said that none of the political parties, in their manifestos, made any promises to the fishing community in this election. The fisherfolk wanted a programme on the lines of the Rythu Bharosa Kendrams for their community, the Matsyakara Bharosa Kendram (MBK), and fisheries industries near the landing centres in the State. “Though we have a vast coastline and do bumper marine fishing business at an international level, we don’t have fisheries industries like Maharashtra and Gujarat,” Mr. Das lamented.
Matsyakara Bharosa
On the other hand, fishermen operating mechanised and traditional boats are of the opinion that the government is yet to provide annual benefits during the two-month ban period. Even though the ban started in mid-April, they have not received the money yet. The officials told them that they are not able to pay the benefits due to the Model Code of Conduct, said a fisherman K. Sankar Rao at Visakhapatnam Fishing Harbour. The officials of the Fisheries Department said they are enumerating the beneficiaries of the Matsyakara Bharosa scheme of the State government (YSRCP government) and that a benefit of ₹10,000 will be deposited in the bank accounts, after the elections (May 13).