Koppal, Raichur villagers boycott polls, blame govt

Residents of several villages in Raichur and Koppal districts boycotted voting for the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday alleging that the government has failed to meet their demands.
In the first instance, residents of Vittalapur village near Tavaragera boycotted after a pregnant woman died at Tavaragera community health centre in the last week of April. The villagers blamed chief of primary health centre Dr Kaveri Shavi’s negligence for the death and refused to vote until action is taken against the official.
There are 862 voters in polling Station No 142 in the village.
Gangappa Uddin, an elderly citizen, said the entire village had unanimously decided to boycott the election because the authorities did not take any action against the medical officer whose negligence led to the death of a pregnant woman from the village.
“Due to the negligence of the PHC, we have lost one of our daughters. We took the decision to boycott the elections if those responsible were not punished,” Uddin said.
“We had informed the government of our decision if Dr Kaveri was not suspended or transferred,” Gangappa Uddin said.
Meanwhile, the polling station in Tammapu village,which has 330 voters, in Manvi taluk of Raichur district registered voter turnout of only 44% by 11:30 am as most people here have been forced to migrate to commercial cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Goa for jobs. Requesting anonymity, a staff member said they had no work from 11:30 am to 3 pm as no one arrived to vote. “Only about ten people voted by 6 pm,” he added.
Rudrappa Patil, an elder citizen from the village, said that the leading political parties earlier used to appeal to the migrated voters in previous elections. “During the last assembly election, the migrated were appealed to come back to vote, but this time no parties asked them to vote, so they didn’t come,” Patil said, complaining that neither Congress nor the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders visited their village for votes.
In polling station 142, which has 862 voters in Tammapu village, not a single vote was cast until nearly 12 noon. After police and election staff persuaded voters, the turnout reached 5% by 3pm. Similarly, not a single vote was cast in ward No18 in Tavaragera until 1 pm. After the election officials rushed to the village to appeal to the eligible voters, 40 votes were cast, said Tahasildar Ravi Angadi. “The 142nd polling booth has 862 votes, and the polling percentage was zero by 1 pm. Now, after convincing people to vote, the turnout has increased,” he said.
The voters of Musturu village in Raichur district boycotted the election despite personal appeals from the election authority.
Chandrakant Kustagi, a member of the ‘pancha committee’ (elders committee of the village), said they boycotted the election to protest against the lack of water supply to the village. “After our MP, whom we voted for in the last election, did not resolve our issues, we unanimously decided to boycott the election,” he said.
To prevent the voters from going to the polls, the villagers blocked the roads leading to the polling stations by halting tractors, water tankers, and bullock carts as a mark of protest.
In another incident, a 45-year-old woman polling officer deployed at a polling booth in Gujarat’s Amreli district died after she complained of uneasiness while on duty on Tuesday, an official said.
Kaushika Babariya, a teacher at a government school, was deployed at a school in Jafrabad town, said Ajay Dahiya, Amreli collector and district election officer.
He quoted the doctors as stating that the probable cause of her death was heart attack.