‘Despite requests, nothing had been done in two decades’

Showing a thumbs-down to the BJP government’s development agenda, villagers of two villages in Hathras reserved constituency boycotted the Lok Sabha poll for a major part of the day.

Voters of Bijona Bujurg and Sikharan villages said that they wouldn’t vote because despite repeated requests the 1.5 km stretch of road that connects the villages to Jiroli mod of Lodha block had not been constructed for the last two decades.

“We have been suffering for a long time. So, we decided not to cast our franchise this morning. The decision has not been taken under any pressure,” said Omkar Singh, a local farmer, speaking on behalf of 1,500 voters.

“It has been our demand for many years. We made requests on Facebook and have sent letters to the Prime Minister portal but our demand has not been heard. The PM talks of digital India but we are waiting for basic needs. During rains, it becomes impossible to cross this small stretch,” Mr. Singh claimed.

Jitender Singh of Sikharan village said during rains children are not able to go to school for days. “We wanted to register our protest. There is no politics behind it.”

The locals said that these are Thakur-dominated villages and don’t matter for the candidates of the reserved constituency. “When the word spread, the wife of the BJP candidate Rajvir Diler, who is also the local MLA, came to the village and said that our votes didn’t matter to her,” alleged Giriraj Singh, another villager. Manoj Kumar, the Block Level Officer, denied the charge. “She made a request, but their demand couldn’t be met overnight.”

Rampal Singh, the presiding officer of Bijona booth, said that the District Magistrate also visited the village to convince the voters that their demand would be met but they didn’t heed to his request.

“It is a first in my career,” said Mr. Rampal. He added that the villagers had been peaceful and had in fact given them cots to rest.

‘Gandhian protest’

“It has been a Gandhian protest. We could have pressed NOTA but it would not have made such an impact. We wanted to show that we have lost interest in the system,” said young Mukesh Kumar.

After repeated requests from the administration, by 4 p.m. the villagers of Bijona decided to cast their vote but residents of Sikharan remained adamant. “In our village out of around 1,100 votes, only about 30 have been cast,” said Mr. Jitender.