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Gwala (milkman) Prasanta Behera, 38, and his wife Laxmipriya, 35, have not voted for the last decade.
"I tried to enroll our names in the voters' list here but was not able to," explains Behera, the father of one son and two daughters -- Niranjan 11, Sasmita, 7 and Lipi, 13.
"Our names are on the voters' list at Situala, but we cannot afford to go there to vote and leave our cows because these cows provide our income. My chances of casting a vote in this election are remote," says Behera who maintains half a dozen cows is his one-room home.
"Neither can I afford to go back to my village to vote nor can I vote here.
"Yes, I have heard of them [L K Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Sonia Gandhi]. But they all are ministers, " says Behera, who has studied till grade four, giving his wife a smile.
But even if Behera gets his name listed on a voters' list he is not too sure who he would like to vote for or whom he would like to see as the prime minister. "I cannot say," he says. He does not have a television or a radio.
"Nobody has done any thing for me. Why should I select them? If someone can get our names on the voters' list I will vote for who ever he suggests.
"Yes I know who Naveen Patnaik is. He is our chief minister. I like him because he is the son of Biju Patnaik, who has done many things for the poor." But Behera is not too sure what these 'many things' were.
Politics is not a pressing issue for this milkman or his wife, who is busy 24/7 milking and taking care of his cows, collecting cow dung and selling milk to nearby households. "The money I earn selling milk and cow dung goes towards maintaining the cows and my family. I hardly save any thing."
Does he know that L K Advani's Bharat Udaya Yatra reached Orissa on April 12? "We all are struggling for our survival. We hardly have time to think about these things," says Laxmipriya.
"We visited the home of a local politician a few years ago. But he asked us for money to get our names included in the voters' list. We did not have any and he told us not to disturb him. Since then we hate politicians. We do not want to go to them or vote for them"
No he does not send his children to school. They will work with him.
The Beheras spoke to Giridhar Gopal in Bhubaneswar
Next: 'I don't think India is shining but Vajpayee is a good man' | Previous: 'They have not even asked for our votes'
How We Will Vote
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