When the restructuring of gram panchayats (GP) was being done, the residents of Malligawad village in Hubballi taluk of Dharwad district expected to see their village as the headquarters of the newly formed gram panchayat created out of Umachagi and Malligawad villages.
But to their dismay, they found Umachagi was chosen to be the headquarters, despite their requests. Malligawad, with six GP seats and a population of more than 2,000, has now decided to boycott the polls. The residents have decided not to contest in any election and not to allow any official or elected representative to visit their village.
Malligawad is not the only village where the decision to boycott elections was taken.
Residents of Budihal and Marasanahalli villages in Indi taluk in Vijayapura district too have boycotted the panchayat polls, albeit for different reasons. In Budihal village, the number of GP seats have been reduced from six to five after the delimitation. According to Deputy Commissioner D. Randeep, as per the norms, there should be one member for a population of 400 and Budihal had a population of 2,000. Election was conducted to six seats in the last election because of an official’s mistake.
Marasanahalli villagers have boycotted the polls because they want their village brought under the Arjunagi GP instead of the existing Shershyad GP.
These are a few examples of boycott of GP polls in the Bombay-Karnataka region, where 167 seats will go uncontested because of the boycott. Dharwad district has the highest number of such cases, with as many as 22 seats remaining uncontested out of 1,960 seats in 136 gram panchayats.
Vijayapura district has 12 such seats where not a single nomination paper has been filed. Uttara Kannada and Gadag districts have 10 such uncontested seats because of the boycott, while Bagalkot district has seen no nominations for seven seats. In Belagavi, a total of 106 seats will go uncontested.
“It is the highhandedness of some ill-informed officials and in some cases a few elected representatives, which force villagers to boycott elections as they see it as a last resort to express their angst. That too, it is done with a hope that remedial measures will be taken,” said Mahesh Pattar, Dharwad district secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions.
There have been examples of villagers withdrawing the boycott threat after getting assurances from the authorities concerned.Hyderabad Karnataka
Lack of basic amenities, particularly drinking water, and a demand to upgrade the existing gram panchayats (GP) into town panchayats are among the key reasons for the decision of some villages in the Hyderabad-Karantaka region to boycott the GP elections scheduled on June 2.
Hallikhed B. Gram Panchayat in Bidar district and Hutti GP in Raichur district have decided to boycott the elections protesting against the decision of the State government not to upgrade their gram panchayats into town panchayats.
Rangavar and Konthanpalli villages in Sedam taluk in Kalaburagi district are boycotting the polls in protest against shifting the gram panchayat headquarters to neighbouring villages, and Ranjangi Gram Panchayat in Chitapur taluk in Kalaburagi district is boycotting the elections demanding basic amenities. In Tyagadal village in Sandur taluk in Ballari district, people are boycotting the elections demanding a change in the reservation category of the seat in their village. The Tyagadal village has a higher Muslim population and the seat in the village has been reserved for Scheduled Castes.
Raichur Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil said officials had been deputed to some villages to convince the villagers to participate in polling.
