NRI s call up people to vote for LOKSATTA

Last week, voters all over Andhra Pradesh were in for a surprise when they started receiving calls from international callers. The calls were from a group of NRI volunteers seeking support for the Lok Satta Party. Looking at the current political scenario in Andhra Pradesh and not being able to cast their vote for their favorite party, several enthusiastic NRIs have taken up the responsibility of spreading word about the party first-hand.

In addition to calling their own families, friends and relatives, volunteers from USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries have come together and started a massive phone campaign seeking support for the party from Indian voters. Phone numbers of Indian voters from various constituencies were being collected from phone companies and also from their fellow volunteer groups in India. The ‘phone campaigners’ asked the voters to support the party and vote for ‘Whistle’, the election symbol for the Lok Satta Party.

Voters are not only overwhelmed to receive calls from educated NRIs but are also surprised to see the amount of interest and knowledge NRIs have about the current political scenario in India. Majority of the voters have responded positively so far and have also assured the campaigners that they would vote for the Lok Satta Party in the forthcoming elections. Many voters were found to be curiously inquiring about the party’s policies and the kind of changes the party would bring about in their state once elected. They also reported that most of their queries were answered in great detail by the volunteers.

When asked as to why the volunteers were taking up such a tedious task when most people try to stay away from politics, their response was, “Politics touches everyone’s lives irrespective of whether Indians live in India or overseas. Every political party in India is currently using divisive measures based on caste, religion or region to get into power. Lok Satta is different in this regard. We started supporting Lok Satta Party only because of their ideologies that emphasize primarily on social development and clean governance.” The NRI group said that they were inspired by Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, the party’s president and his ‘50 guarantees’ for the state. “We are doing this not only for ourselves but for our future generations”, they added.

This might be the first time that NRIs from all over the world have gathered together in such huge numbers and tried to influence the Indian voter’s psyche directly. A small initiative taken by a few enthusiastic volunteers has snowballed into a huge ‘movement’ of sorts. Going by their tagline ‘A silent revolution in Indian politics’, the volunteers have started a silent campaign to garner more votes for their party in this election. Looking at the momentum the phone campaign has been gaining lately, it might be too late for the other parties to play catch-up.

Few of the callers included but not limited to Chakradhar Potluri,Micheal sama, Pratyush , Srinivas ranabothu, Sridhar, Vamsi Raavi and Tarun Kakani

This news item was published in a lot of websites and newspapers as well.