Except for a few incidents of poll boycott by some villagers, the polling in Keonjhar district was peaceful on Thursday.Ghogamora villagers under Anandpur block abstained from voting demanding solution to several development problems.
Similarly, villagers of Badabil under Keonjhar Sadar block also staged a dharna in front of the polling booth in protest against the Government’s apathy towards the village.
“living close to the town, we are yet to have any good road, proper school building or drinking water. The land of the school is encroached by some other person and the administration has turned a deaf ear to our repeated requests,” complained Natabar Patra, a local resident. “All the leaders have cheated us; so we are not going to vote for any of them this time,” Sanjulata Patra, another villager, added.Hence, the polling party had to report zero polling in these booths.
In the Ghasipura Assembly constituency, Congress candidate Prithviraj Kuanr and Independent candidate Ramchandra Behera lodged a written complaint with the Sub-Collector of Anandpur against BJD candidate Minister Badri Narayan Patra alleging booth capture in five panchayats.
“We have also submitted visual recordings as evidence in support of our complaint,” they said. The complaints have been forwarded to the higher authorities for appropriate action, sources in the Sub-Collector’s office said.
Out of the 11,69,902 voters in the district, more than 68 per cent turned up in the 1,657 polling booths to cast their votes on the polling day.Tribal villagers of Gudinarda in Telkoi block had to walk down the hilly track of seven km up to Ponga, their polling booth, to cast their votes. Primitive Juang tribes from Upper Kansa village also expressed their dissatisfaction as they had to walk five km down a hill to Kodipasa to reach the polling station.
“We have seen no candidate or party leaders in our village in the last 40 years and no Government has thought of providing roads, drinking water or electricity to our village,” the Juangs of Gudinarda and Kansa complained.Keonjhar being among the Maoist-prone districts, 217 booths were identified as more sensitive and five company paramilitary forces were deployed to ensure peaceful voting in the areas.
PCC president Jayadev Jena, senior BJD leader Badri Narayan Patra and BJP State general secretary Mohan Majhi are among the contesting candidates whose fate is now sealed in the EVMs.