Setting aside their daily household chores on Wednesday morning, women turned up in large numbers at different polling stations for casting their vote in Krishna district. This phenomenon was evident in all the Assembly constituencies, especially Mylavaram, Nandigama and Jaggaiahpet constituencies, where women voters outnumbered men.
As soon as the polling commenced women arrived early and waited for their turn at the polling stations. Serpentine queues were witnessed at several polling stations and in a few stations, the women voters queue was longer than the men’s queue.
In spite of the scorching heat, this trend continued till afternoon at many polling stations. For instance, 1,361 votes were polled out of the total 4,373 votes at Zilla Parishad High School in Kanchikacharla polling station in Nandigama Assembly constituency till 11.30 a.m. Of the 1,361 votes, 723 were women and 638 men.
“I was reluctant but my son asked me to cast my vote saying women can herald a change. I made it a point to cast my vote,” says K. Madhavi, a voter at the polling station.
Interestingly, there are more women voters than men in Mylavaram, Nandigama and Jaggaiahpet constituencies and contestants are keeping their fingers crossed about their prospects. While there is a difference of about 4,000 votes in Jaggaiahpet constituency, it is nearly 3,000 in Nandigama constituency. In Mylavaram, the difference is close to 1,100 votes.
Given the numbers, there is every possibility of women deciding the fate of contestants in these three constituencies. This time there is a significant rise in women casting their votes and it is a good trend, observes a polling staff member at a booth.
