Villagers boycott poll in Pudukottai, Nanguneri

Pudukottai/Tirunelveli: Elections are the time when voters give vent to their frustration by keeping off polling. As it happened in parts of Pudukottai district and three villages in Nanguneri, Tirunelveli district on Thursday.In Vengaivayal village, 61 scheduled caste (SC) residents boycotted the election, even as neighbouring Eraiyur villagers withdrew their earlier call for boycott. The protest by Vengaivayal residents stems from the 2022 incident in which human faeces were found mixed in an overhead tank supplying drinking water to the SC hamlet. While Vengaivayal residents accused non-dalit residents of Eraiyur of contaminating the water source, the latter denied the allegations and levelled counter-charges.In the run-up to the poll, Eraiyur residents had announced poll boycott, listing a series of demands. Vengaivayal residents demanded that the cases filed against them be withdrawn, as they were victims in the contamination incident.Sources said the whole area has about 549 votes out of which 69 are from the SC hamlet. Only eight people voted on Thursday. In a separate incident, residents of R Balakurichi village in Pudukottai district boycotted the election demanding a change in their assembly constituency.In Nanguneri, nearly 900 voters of Indra Colony, Perumbathu, and Ilayaneri villages boycotted the election protesting the govt's failure to provide security following the double murder of a local man and an Odisha guest worker by armed goons on March 2. The villagers continuously protested demanding justice for the family of the deceased John. Though officials provided assurances, people now say the govt failed to provide the promised protection.A resident of Perumbathu told TOI that for the past 15 days they held protests demanding a crime-free village. "Even after that double murder incident, the chief minister and district collector didn't visit our village. Why should they do this," she added. Knowing that people weren't voting, district collector R Sukumar spoke to the panchayat president and requested to cast the votes, but villagers didn't respond.