Migrant workers who have left their places of the nativity to other States to eke out a living are likely to play a role in deciding the poll outcome in several gram panchayats in migration-prone districts in the State.

The three-tier panchayat elections in Odisha will be held in five phases from February 16 to 24 amid strict adherence to Covid-19 protocols.

Migration is a perennial feature in almost all parts of the State. Abysmal lack of employment opportunities has triggered a large-scale exodus of human resources right from the Ganjam, the home district of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to the backward Nuapada district.

The distress migration is largely in vogue in around 500-gram panchayats of 20 blocks of Bolangir, Nuapada, Bargarh, and Kalahandi districts. The affected blocks in these four districts are Bangomunda, Belpara, Khaprakhol, Muribahal, Titlagarh, Turekela, Gaisilet, Jharbandh, Padampur, Paikmal, Bhawanipatna Sadar, Golamunda, Lanjigarh, M. Rampur, Th. Rampur, Boden, Khariar, Komna, Nuapada and Sinapalli, according to officials.

In the remaining parts of the State, there is the seasonal migration of workforces including skilled labour.

It remains to be seen whether the migrant workers who are firmly ensconced outside the State undertake a homeward journey to participate in the upcoming panchayat polls. However, ahead of the polls, the parties and candidates fighting without party symbols are understood to have activated their agencies to bring them back home before the polls. After all, the votes of these migrant workforces and the registered voters of their families count a lot.

“My father may skip the vote. He is settled in Kochi in Kerala. He has already expressed an unwillingness to turn up. He is disillusioned with the lack of developmental work in the village. Canal water is not reaching our village as it is situated at the tail end of the canal system. The drinking water problem has not been solved by people’s representatives over the years”, said Raghunath Rout of NImapursasan village in Kendrapara district explaining his father’s unwillingness to vote.

Raghunath Rout, a native of Gobindanagar village in Ganjam district, spoke on the same line.

“My father and elder brother have shifted to Surat in Gujarat for the past five years. They are working on a spinning meal. In the 2019 general elections for the assembly and Lok Sabha, they had returned home to take part in the voting. They will only come to vote if the employer grants them paid leave. In 2019, they were allowed paid leave. But this time, the employer is reluctant to do the same”, he said.