Growing tribe of migrant voters find voice in local body polls

The forthcoming local body polls are special for Rajendra Naik, a native of Kandhamal in Odisha who works in a plywood company, as he will be casting his maiden vote in Ward 5 of Vazhakkulam panchayat near Perumbavoor, where he has settled down with his family, including his wife, a Malayali, and two daughters.

He had been a voter in Kummil panchayat in Kollam district, from where his wife Rajani hails, since 2014, but has since been transposed to the electoral rolls in Vazhakkulam after the panchayat authorities helped him find a plot and build a house there. The 41-year-old was never in the electoral rolls back home in Kandhamal as he migrated to Kerala as part of a group of 15 job aspirants as far back as 2001, when he was a minor.

Mr. Rajendra is part of a slowly growing tribe of migrant voters who have chosen to settle down in Kerala and enlist as voters here.

Kanak Mondal, 38, a domestic help originally from Balasore district in Odisha, has voted in multiple elections since she migrated here in 2006.

She has since bought a parcel of land not far from the Vyttila Mobility Hub, where the Maradu municipality helped her build a house in which she now lives with her husband, Abhijit Mondal, a gardener, and their two sons.

She is now a voter in Ward 3 of the municipality. Workers of political parties have visited her household multiple times and given her the voter’s slip. Her outlook on voting is simple: “Political parties hardly matter. I will vote for the candidate who helps us and who I feel is a good person,” Ms. Kanak said.

C. Ponraj, 52, arrived here as a two-year-old child when his parents migrated here from Dindigul in Tamil Nadu. Mr. Ponraj is now a voter in the Vathuruthy division of the Kochi Corporation, a migrant hub of predominantly Tamil workers. A link worker for migrant labourers under the National Health Mission, he also served as block-level officer for booth 139 in the division, a tough task he has almost wrapped up.

“Following the Special Intensive Revision [SIR] of electoral rolls, migrants settled here are confused about whether to retain their names in the electoral rolls here or get enlisted in the voter list back home. While many have retained their names here, those who continue to have properties back home have chosen to get their names deleted from the electoral rolls here and enlist there. Voting in Vathuruthy is predominantly divided along the lines of CITU and INTUC allegiance,” said Mr. Ponraj.

Benoy Peter, executive director of the Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development, said that migration to Kerala had crossed a threshold and may now see a gradual increase in migrants preferring to settle down here, unlike the prevailing trend of 95% or more eventually returning to their homeland.

“With the demographics skewed in favour of north India as the population begins to register negative growth in Kerala, coupled with the large-scale migration of youngsters from Kerala abroad, there is a dearth of workers to carry out physical labour here. It will also open up greater job avenues for migrant women and increased academic opportunities for their children, encouraging migrants to settle down,” he said.

Ernakulam district is home to a large number of migrant workers, especially from Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal, and Assam.