Rajendra Kumar, a carpenter and a resident of Station Maroda is all set to cast his vote in upcoming state assembly elections of state after having last voted 5 years ago in Rajasthan. From last three years, he works in Risali area and now he is transferred his vote to Durg District and has even done his e-EPIC to ensure he can cast his vote on November 17, when second phase of election at Chhattisgarh take place in 60 constituencies including 6 ones of Durg district. “Although I was here during parliament elections of 2014 and civic polls, but I could not enroll due to technical complications. This time with the district election commission and Risali Municipal Corporation, I will cast my vote in this State assembly election”. Along with him, his wife and younger brother will exercise their vote for first time in Chhattisgarh. Another migrant, Partha Das, a lecturer in private college who shifted to Pragiti Nagar area of Risali from Sambalpur Odisha five years ago will be voting here for first time. “I had voted last time in 2014 for parliament and state assembly in Odisha. But now as we are permanently settled in Bhilai, I will use my voting power in Chhattisgarh”, he added.

 

Apart from them, there are hundreds of voters who are migrants as they are belonged to Odisha, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and West Bengal and for work as well as business purposes, they have settled in different parts of RMC for years. Majority of them are likely to cast their vote for the first time in Bhilai as well as Chhattisgarh and they are quite excited for it. All of them have transferred their votes to Durg district from their native districts. “With district election commission’s support, the civic body has conducted a mass drive and motivated these migrants to transfer their vote from native districts to Durg. They have also showed enthusiasm and a large number of migrants are all set to cast their vote in upcoming state assembly election” said Ashish Dewagan, Commissioner of RMC. Dr. N Bhattacharya, social worker and political activist stated that college students and social volunteers have organized so many camps, so that migrant residence would transfer their votes to district and would cast their vote. In it, the civic body of Risali achieved a success and managed to transfer many votes of migrants from their states to Chhattisgarh.