As election to Maharashtra’s Chandrapur and Telangana’s Adilabad (ST) Parliamentary seats are being held simultaneously on April 11, the question of dual franchise of voters in the border gram panchayats Anthapur and Parandoli has come into limelight once again.
The 4,311 voters in the villages of Bolapatar, Yesapur, Anthapur, Gouri, Arkepalli and Paraswada villages in Anthapur and Karanjiwada, Anarpalli, Lakhmapur, Kota, Parandoli and Jankapur in Parandoli enjoy a unique status, that of being voters in both the neighbouring States, thanks to an 80 sq km area along the inter-State border in Kerameri mandal of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district and Jivti taluk of Chandrapur being administered by both the neighbouring States and the voters being listed in either constituency.
The simultaneous polling is sure to give rise to the tricky question whether the voters will be allowed to cast their votes in the respective polling stations, five each to be set up by election authorities of both the States in Parandoli, Karanjiwada, Anarpalli, Bolapatar and Anthapur and the manner in which it is to be done.
While the voters themselves have always been in favour of voting in the two constituencies with the intention of not losing welfare schemes given to them by both the States, it will be interesting to see how they manage time, standing in a queue in polling stations.
Telangana and Maharashtra claim the 80 sq km of territory on the north of Telangana, as a dispute which had arisen during the 1956 reorganisation of States on linguistic basis was left unresolved.
Inter-State tension
The then Andhra Pradesh government set up polling stations in the area for the first time in the 1989 election which had created some inter-State tension.
It was in that election year in 1999 that the then AP High Court ruled the villages to be part of Andhra Pradesh following which Maharashtra appealed in the Supreme Court. The question of dual vote did arise but the matter was left at that as elections were held in Chandrapur and then united Adilabad districts on different dates in 1999.
In 2004, however, the Election Commission wanted the voters to choose between either of the constituencies. “This had our women voting in election for Chandrapur constituency and men in Adilabad,” recalled Laxman Kamble, sarpanch of Parandoli gram panchayat from Maharashtra side.
EC permission
In 2009, election authorities had sought clarification from the Election Commission on whether the voters could exercise their franchise for Parliament election on both the sides and Assembly election in AP being held concurrently. The EC allowed voting as elections were held in different phases in Maharashtra and AP.
In 2014, the question of putting indelible ink came to the fore as election to rural local bodies in AP were also held almost simultaneously with the general election in Chandrapur and Adilabad. The EC had allowed marking the first and second fingers of the voters with the indelible ink then.
