Osmanabad villages boycott Lok Sabha elections

Mumbai: Two villages in Osmanabad district of Maharashtra Thursday boycotted voting for the Lok Sabha election, as the villagers felt that the government had not paid heed to their demands and their issues had remained unresolved so far. The district collector confirmed the same.  

Inhabitants of Jejala village in Bhum tehsil and Dhanegaon village in Tuljapur boycotted voting. Jejala has around 1,000 voters, but till 1pm, not a single person came to the polling booth.  

A local youth Sagar Bhosale, who is leading the protest, said that they had been demanding better roads for a long time, but no government official or politicians had addressed their demand till date.  

Mr Bhosale said, “A couple of months ago, an ill person from my village died on the way to a nearby hospital as we could not shift him in time. It took 45 minutes for us to reach the hospital, which was just 2.5km away. The village then decided to boycott the election.”  

However, village sarpanch Sumitrabai Hogale was not available for comment. Her close aides said that she had been visiting several government offices with a request for construction of a new road, but her efforts had gone in vain.  

The villagers of Dhanegaon, too, boycotted elections as the issue related to their rehabilitation had remained unresolved since a long time.

When contacted, Deepa Mudhol-Munde, district collector and Returning Officer (RO) of Osmanabad, confirmed and said, “Our officials have visited both villages. We fulfilled their two demands - providing tankers and ration cards - and even road construction work had commenced. Still, both
villages boycotted the Lok Sabha election.”