Bengal political parties begin special drive to ensure migrant workers participate in polling

Kolkata, March 29 (IANS) Almost all political parties in West Bengal have started the process to ensure that the migrant workers from the state staying elsewhere to earn their livelihoods return to exercise their franchise in the Lok Sabha elections.

Trinamool Congress leadership, according to party insiders, has asked the respective booth committees to contact the family members of such migrant workers and through them convince such workers to participate in the polling process in the state.

“This time we have specially instructed the booth committees to identify those families that have youths working outside the state. Their lists are being prepared and they will be contacted and persuaded to participate in the polling process, said Trinamool Congress leader Mridul Goswami

BJP is doing a similar exercise but in a more elaborate process. They have opened a special cell in West Bengal which is currently busy collating the data of such workers and the other states they are working now.

“Once the data will be compiled, our respective state units in those states will be requested to contact those migrant workers and provide them necessary assistance so that they can come back to Bengal on the respective polling dates and cast their votes,” said a state committee member of the BJP in the state.

He said that already the dialogue process has started with party units in those states where the numbers of migrant workers from West Bengal are maximum.

According to BJP’s leaders the main problem is that no comprehensive data of the migrant workers is available with the state government. “Hence, I have doubts ultimately how many such migrant voters we will finally be able to reach out to,” the state committee member said.

He also admitted that the main problem in convincing the migrant workers to come back to the state on the polling dates is the cost involved with it. “So we may try to convince them. But if they are not willing to bear the cost of travel we cannot convince them really,” he said.