Karnataka

Give us our due: 12 villages in Western Ghats stay put at home

Tushar A Majukar

BELAGAVI:  The boycott of the Lok Sabha polls on Tuesday was almost total at 12 villages located amid the Western Ghats in Khanapur taluk as residents chose to stay away from the polling booths en masse. 
Deprived of basic infrastructure for the past six decades, the residents chose to boycott the polls to get their message across and no amount of cajoling by Election Commission officials swayed their decision. According to the residents, around 2176 voters stayed indoors on Tuesday. 

“No politician has responded to our problems so far in 60 years. We have atlast realized that our votes do not matter to them,” said a villager. Those around him joined in and cursed the government and their representatives. The boycott was total across Gavali, Krishnapur, Pastoli, Kongala, Talewadi, Jordan, Sayache Mala, Chapoli, Kapoli, Mudagai, Chirekhani and Aamgaon. Villagers here are struggling without roads, medical facilities, schools or even electricity for decades. Even the Election Commission decided to give them only three polling booths at Gavali, Chapoli and Amte.

“Recently, all residents of the 12 villages had a joint meeting and passed a resolution to boycott the polls,” said Suryakant Krishna Gavkar, a resident of Kongala. Vasudev Gawade, a resident of Gavali said that voters from up to seven villages had to come to Gavali to vote. “For voters from Horda, they have to walk 21 kilometers to vote,” he said adding that this meant an entire day just to travel to cast their vote. 

“Even if they do vote, the elected representatives have no sympathy for them. They don’t even know of their existence or realise the value of our votes. What would be the point?,” he questioned. On Tuesday, several officials visited these villages, to try and convince the voters to visit the polling station but they remained firm in their decision to boycott voting. 

In Shimoga, voters of Ambedkar Nagar in the city initially boycotted the elections on Tuesday morning but relented after a visit by the Deputy Commissioner K A Dayananda who assured them that he would address their grievances. A similar incident unfolded in Siggalu village of Sagar taluk and timely intervention of poll officials led to villagers voting by 4pm. In Davanagere, residents of Boragondanahalli in Mayakonda constituency boycotted voting in the morning but later voted after officials intervened. Residents said that they face issues like water scarcity and dry lakes. 

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