Maharashtra Assembly polls: With dual voting rights, border villagers demand land pattas

Former sarpanch in Parandoli village, straddling Maharashtra and Telangana, highlights villagers' plight of dual ownership and voting rights.

In the quaint village of Parandoli, straddling the border of Maharashtra and Telangana, former sarpanch Laxman Kamble sums up the villagers’ plight as na ghar ka na ghat ka — neither belong fully to one State nor the other — as they are alternately “owned and disowned” by both States.

Seated on his porch beside a statue of B.R. Ambedkar, Mr. Kamble, who was first elected in 1995, points out the problem of frequent power outages. Parandoli is one of 14 villages straddling Maharashtra’s Jivti taluk in Chandrapur district and Telangana’s Kerameri mandal in Kumuram Bheem Asifabad, home to around 5,000 people, predominantly Marathi-speaking Scheduled Caste (SC) communities.

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These villagers hold a unique privilege: dual voting rights in both Maharashtra and Telangana. Between November last year and May this year, over 3,000 registered voters exercised their constitutional rights in the Telangana Assembly election and the Lok Sabha polls in both States. Now, they are preparing for another round in the Maharashtra Assembly election — making it four votes in less than a year.

But for Mr. Kamble and other villagers, all that mattered in this election, or any election, was whether one supported or opposed their demand of giving pattas (title deeds) for the lands they have been cultivating for decades without official ownership — each family three to five acres. “Our long-standing demand is simple: support whoever gives us pattas,” the former sarpanch says, explaining the recent shift in favour of merging with Maharashtra. This shift follows an extensive land survey conducted by the Chandrapur district administration, which assured residents they would receive pattas by next year.

When this correspondent visited the villages a year ago, villagers were keen on retaining dual voting rights, dismissing the “one nation, one election” debate. They feared that giving up dual voting could jeopardise the benefits they received from both States. However, as Maharashtra’s land survey promises the closer realisation of their land rights, the villagers now lean towards aligning with Maharashtra.

Half the villages — Parandoli, Mukadamguda, Maharajguda, Lendijada, Kota, Shankerlodi, and Parandoli Tanda — are part of the Parandoli gram panchayat. The remaining villages of Bolapatar, Isapur, Anthapur, Indranagar, Lendiguda, Gowri, and the newly-added Narayanguda are part of Anthapur gram panchayat.