NRIs from the USA and other variety of nations attempted to cast ballots in the Lok Sabha elections. Some went back to their home state of Meerut in the north, while others traveled to coastal states like Kerala and Karnataka. Foreign engagement in Kerala, especially through chartered planes and cheap flight tickets to India from USA, garnered attention. While voting was given great emphasis by NRIs in Bengaluru and Mangaluru. In the last two days, around 22,000 NRIs have traveled to Kerala to cast ballots in the highly anticipated general elections. Harsha DM and Spoorthi CS flew from Sydney to vote in Bangalore North, a Bengaluru seat.
Anwar Naha, a 53-year-old foreign worker employed in the UAE, cast his ballot in the Ponnani Lok Sabha seat in Malappuram, Kerala, on Friday.
Naha announced that the Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (KMCC) had arranged 5 chartered flights to fly from the UAE for this election. It is connected to the IUML. Furthermore, a large number of foreign nationals had made bulk reservations on scheduled flights to return home.
Many NRIs made it a point to travel down to vote on Friday when 13 states held their second round of Lok Sabha elections.
Three NRIs returned home to use their voting rights in the northern state of Meerut. While a sizable percentage went to the coastal states of Kerala and Karnataka. Harsh Vardhan Agarwal (31) traveled from the US, Gaurav Gulati (37), an IT specialist, who returned from Germany, and Manav Tyagi (35), who is originally from New Zealand.
According to Tyagi, who comes from Rasna village in the Meerut area of Uttar Pradesh. “I have been living in New Zealand for ten years”. I relocated there in 2014 to pursue my studies, and I was employed there as well. Even though I could have become a citizen, I chose not to since I refused to give up my Indian voting rights. New Zealand still uses paper ballots for elections, while India is making effective use of electronic polling.
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The talk of Kerala was expats who were flying home on chartered planes to vote.
Hassan Chalil, the state president of Dubai KMCC, claimed that two scheduled “vote flights” had carried foreign voters to the Vadakara LS constituency alone. At Nadapuram, Chalil cast his ballot. Chalil claims that they planned to fly back to cast their votes after leaving Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and other Gulf countries.
According to TOI sources, about 12 “vote flights” would have arrived in Kerala before the polls. Chalil, a 35-year veteran of the UAE restaurant business, said. “We were able to provide voters tickets at a rate of AED 349 through negotiations with airline companies.”
Many NRIs in Mangaluru took a few days’ leave of absence to vote back home. Christopher Roshan Lobo, a native of Kulshekar, said he decided to spend the weekend at home instead of continuing his work in Bahrain.
Lobo stated, “I arrived at the polling place before it opened at 7 am on Friday. I flew into Mangaluru on Thursday evening and will return on Saturday.”
To allow them to return to Kuwait and cast ballots. 45 employees of Gokuldas Bhat were granted two days off from work. Abdulla Madumoole, an Abu Dhabi resident, wrote on X, saying.”Spent almost 1 lakh rupees for this one mark — to bring back sanity, civility, and normalcy to our great nation.”
Harsha DM, a resident of Bengaluru, and his spouse Spoorthi CS arrived in the city on Thursday, having journeyed from Sydney. Both participated in the Bangalore North Lok Sabha, using the polling booths at Hebbal for Spoorthi and Dasarahalli near Hebbal for Harsha.
As US-India NRIs flock home to exercise their voting rights. The availability of the cheapest business class flights to India from USA from Flyopedia has facilitated their seamless participation. Bridging distances for civic engagement.
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