Gondal boycotts bypolls

Despite every efforts by election officials,residents of Ribda village of Gondal taluka boycotted polling for byelection to Porbandar Lok Sabha seat on Sunday reportedly after their local problems had allegedly not been solved.

Despite every efforts by election officials,residents of Ribda village of Gondal taluka boycotted polling for byelection to Porbandar Lok Sabha seat on Sunday reportedly after their local problems had allegedly not been solved.

The Election Commission had identified Ribda,around 15 km south of Rajkot on National Highway 27,as vulnerable and had made security arrangement accordingly. However,hours after polling started at 7 pm,nobody from 1,156 voters turned up to cast their votes,alerting the election officers.

We sent a team of a sub-divisional magistrate,a mamlatdar and an executive magistrate along with police officials to Ribda. They persuaded the villagers that enough security arrangements had been made and that they were welcome to go and vote. However,the officials were told by the villagers that they had unanimously decided not to vote in protest of their pending issues, Dhaval Patel,Rajkot collector and district election officer (DEO) told The Indian Express.

After it became clear that villagers were not coming to vote,election officers made public announcements in the village urging them to exercise their franchise. However,no vote was cast till 5 pm. The village is part of Gondal Assembly constituency and Porbandara Lok Sabha seat.

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