Polling officials at the voting centre near Barimund. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, April 17: Residents of Barimund village situated on the banks of the Kuakhai on the city outskirts boycotted the polls to protest against shifting of their names to a polling booth in the nearby village, which is around four kilometres away.

About 1,800 residents of the village under Bhubaneswar-North Assembly constituency abstained from casting their votes.

The aggrieved villagers said that they had to face difficulties because there was only one polling booth for 1,800 voters. They said that during the last elections in 2009, there were two polling booths. They had registered their complaint to the sub-collector requesting him to set up at least one more booth in the area, but their pleas were not heard.

“This is the first time that residents of this place refused to cast their votes. This is a case of utter mismanagement on part of the officials,” said Basant Kumar Das, 48, resident of the village.

Block development officer, Bhubaneswar, Sukanta Kumar Pradhan also failed to pacify and convince villagers to take part in the process. The villagers refused to relent.

“There will be no compromise even if our demands are met now. It was an unanimous decision that none from our locality will exercise their franchise this year,” said Sachikanta Prusty, village committee president.

The polling officials in the booth sat silently.

“We are here to discharge our duty. We cannot tell anyone to vote,” said an official.

District election officer Krishan Kumar said that he and other officers had gone to the spot to convince the villagers, but their effort went in vain.

“Their demand was made at the last moment and it was not possible to make any alternative arrangement at this moment. We will inform the state’s chief electoral officer about the matter and it is up to her to take a decision on this,” said Kumar.