Villagers boycott Lok Sabha elections in Odisha

1100 or so villagers in Odisha’s Balangir boycott Lok Sabha elections and assembly polls held on Monday. Balangir, 321kms from Bhubaneswar, cited a grave lack of hospitals, schools and roads that had been previously demanded and remains unfulfilled. 

In a statement to ANI, Booth 15 Presiding Officer Runu Meher said, “... We wanted to conduct the mock poll and wanted some polling agents to do the same, but we did not find any agent... We waited for our electors, but nobody has come to cast their votes yet. Till 2 pm, nobody had come to vote... we think that they boycotted their vote for some demands... Nobody has cast their vote yet.”

According to ANI, a villager stated that this was the intended intention. “We boycotted the voting for our demand over panchayat and high school… There are no roads also. There are approximately 1780 voters… We will not cast out vote until out demands are fulfilled.”

Debashish Patra, another villager, told ANI that they had written to the collector and SP around nine months back but no action had been taken yet. “We will boycott all the elections until out demands are not fulfilled,” he said 

This came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the public in Dhenkanal and Cuttak, expressing disappointment in the current state of affairs and accusing the Naveen Patnaik government of widespread corruption— claiming stalled development projects under their commission. PM Modi said he was “hurt over the destruction of the state” and that, “Who is responsible for the sorry state of affairs in Odisha? It is the BJD government which is under control of some corrupt people. A handful of corrupt persons have grabbed the chief minister’s office and residence. Small workers of the BJD have now become crorepatis.” 

PM Modi also implied that the state government was preventing the locals from availing the benefits that their mineral-rich land carried. Coming down heavily on the ruling BJD, Modi said the state government has prevented people from availing the benefits of the mineral resources. "In 2014, Modi had prepared a new mineral exploration policy, under which Odisha is getting high royalty," he said. He continued to state that Odisha received Rs. 50,000 crore as mineral royalty and Rs 26,000 crore from the district mineral fund (DMF). This money should have been spent on the development of the state, on building roads, schools and infrastructure to support drinking water but BJD has “misused” it. 

However, despite the boycott, the polling has been largely peaceful spare for some incident across all the five Lok Sabha constituencies. Odisha has recorded 61.24% voter turnout, circa 6pm on Monday, according to officials and Bargarh witnessed the highest voter turnout among all the constituencies of Odisha, recording 67.27% turnout. 

Both BJP and BJD seem to be confident in being able to amass a significant number of seats in this phase. But the problem remains unsolved. In Berhampur, residents of Gudiapatna with a number of 628 active voters have all decided to boycott the upcoming Lok Sabha polling. Gudiapatna falls under Sanakhemundi assemble, under the Aska Lok Sabha constituency. 

“We have demanded a solution to our drinking water problem several times in different forums. But it remains unfulfilled. The women trek about 2-3km to fetch a bucket of water. As a mark of protest, we have decided to stay away from voting,” a villager said. 

Boycotts are happening across small towns and villages in India, including 2 villages from Bundelkhand who cite the previous poll pledges remaining unfulfilled for over 20 years and 2,000 people from Jharkhand’s Hazaribag, demanding the construction of a bridge for access to essential services. 

There are 21 Lok Sabha constituencies and 147 assembly seats, where elections are taking place simultaneously. Polling has been completed in nine parliamentary seats and 63 assembly segments. 

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