A wind of change blowing All over AP: Dr. JP

Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan today congratulated voters on withstanding terrific inducements like money and liquor and major deterrents like poor publicity in the media, and voluntarily coming forward to vote for the Lok Satta in large numbers.

Addressing the media, Dr. JP said the first phase of polling in the 2009 elections witnessed a wind of change blowing all over Andhra Pradesh. “What is heartening is that youth, women, serving and retired employees in the public and private sectors and unorganized workers had taken part in the polling, many of them for the first time in many years.”

Dr. JP said that the voters have now realized that they are the architects of their own destiny and that every vote counts. They did not succumb to the poisonous propaganda that a vote to the Lok Satta would go waste. They did not mind that the Lok Satta Party and its candidates could not go in for costly advertisements camouflaged as news or that sections of the print media chose to virtually black out the party from their columns.

The Lok Satta President congratulated the Election Commission on conducting the elections in a free and fair manner by and large, notwithstanding the fact that there were complaints of voters’ names not being found in voters’ lists, the EVMs malfunctioning in certain areas and minor and sporadic skirmishes.

Dr. JP noted that the police did make an attempt to arrest the flow of money and liquor, but the task is beyond them. The traditional parties, their candidates and supporters did splurge money like water in their determined bid to influence voters. The money and liquor seized by the police all over the State did not equal the amount spent by traditional party candidates in one Lok Sabha constituency.

The elections would demonstrate that voters are wiser than politicians, who have viewed them as purchasable commodities and not as human beings in flesh and blood with their own hopes and aspirations. “The era of swinging electoral verdicts with inducements is coming to an end.”

Dr. JP appealed to voters to exercise their franchise without fail in the second phase of polling too and help bring about the change in the political system they have been yearning for. “A bright future for your children and you is just a vote away,” reiterated Dr. JP.