For the last three days, there have been reports of the district collectors, municipal commissioners and panchayat raj authorities suspending a large number of village and ward volunteers from their duties for allegedly taking part in the electioneering of YSR Congress party candidates in their respective constituencies.
For example, chief electoral officer M K Meena said on Wednesday that 16 ward volunteers were suspended for participating in the ruling party meeting at Ambajipeta mandal in Dr B R Ambedkar Konaseema district, in violation of model code of conduct.
The EC said the volunteers were directed not to leave their respective headquarters without prior permission from concerned authorities and are directed to submit an explanation within three days. The CEO declared that volunteers found guilty of violating the MCC will be sacked.
Similarly, 35 volunteers were suspended in Chittoor and Kurnool districts in a single day on Wednesday.
In Jammalamadugu of Kadapa district, 11 volunteers were sacked rom service for taking part in the campaign of YSRCP candidate Sudhir Reddy; four in Annamayya district and nine in West Godavari district were also sacked for taking part in the YSRCP campaign by wearing party scarfs and caps.
According to sources, there appears to be a strategy behind so many volunteers getting suspended at a time.
“It is not that these volunteers are not aware of the election code and they are not supposed to take part in the ruling party campaign. It appears they are getting suspended deliberately,” a source said.
These volunteers already have collected a comprehensive data of the voters in their respective domains and done the voter profiling long back.
They know pretty well who will vote for which party; so, they have clear instructions from the ruling YSRC party to attract the voters by offering them all kinds of sops and gifts, besides money.
“The party has already parked good amount of money with these volunteers for distribution among the voters. But they cannot do it, if they continue to be in the job of volunteers. So, if they get suspended, they can right royally campaign for the YSRCP. Since they are equipped with the data bank of the voters, it will be easier for them to attract voters,” sources said.