Andhra Pradesh elections: 0 vote in 2 booths in Araku Valley

VISAKHAPATNAM: In perhaps the first time in the poll history of the two Telugu states, two polling stations in the Agency area of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh recorded zero

voter turnout

.

While Maoists had given a boycott call, the extra distance that the villagers had to trek to cast their votes after the two booths in the

Araku Valley

assembly segment were shifted to a new location just four days before poll may have also contributed to the zero voter turnout.

Of the 652 voters in Bungaput polling station (No. 30) and 393 voters in Kusumput booth (No. 31), who all hail from 25 tribal villages including Kenduguda, Cherlimetta, Uppacheruvu, Kummariput and Dukkiguda, not one turned up. Sources said the Maoist factor could not be the only reason as even when

Naxalite

movement was at its peak in the Agency area each polling station saw at least a few votes being cast.

Former Congress minister P Balaraju, who has been active in the region for the last three and half decades, told TOI: “I have never witnessed zero voter turnout in my entire political career. I was born and brought up in the Visakha Agency area, but we never saw zero voter turnout even during the Naxalite movement.” Balaraju is Jana Sena candidate from Paderu assembly constituency.

The inaccessibility of polling stations may have also led to voters staying away. The EC shifted the two booths following intelligence inputs about Maoist threat in the area. The Bungaput panchayat area was the original location for the two booths, but four days before April 11 they were shifted 9 km away to Matsayapuram under Babusala panchayat. Trekking the extra 9 km in the hilly terrain was an ordeal which the voters may have preferred to avoid..

“We had requested officials to set up polling stations at Bungaput or arrange booths in nearby places such as Lakshmipuram, Jabada or Birruguda in Lakshmipuram panchayat. But they did not pay heed to our requests,” a resident of Bungaput village said.

Visakha Rural SP Babujee Attada told TOI that 12 polling stations in Odisha on Andhra-Odisha Border were shifted due to Naxalite activity. “After suspected movement on the border close to Bungaput we shifted the polling booths to provide a free environment to voters by arranging nine jeeps and lunch,” he said.

Asked whether there could be re-polling in these two polling stations, returning officer and special deputy collector Sudhakar Raju said: “We will discuss re-polling with higher ups. However, there is hardly any possibility as they boycotted the polls. If even a single vote had been polled then there would have been a chance.”

A senior police officer, on condition of anonymity, said: “The Maoists had warned villagers that if they see the ink mark, the finger would be chopped.” Villagers, however, alleged that they did not vote because their polling stations were shifted to faraway locations.