They had warned to boycott the elections if their boys were not released before December 12. But, when E-day dawned, they did an absolute turnabout. Residents of Hanuman Tekri on Thursday gave a variety of reasons, ranging from call of duty to pressure from certain quarters, for changing their mind. Twenty boys from the area had been put behind bars in connection with the Best Bakery carnage. ‘‘The VHP is continuously helping us. I had no option but to vote,’’ said Tejalben, whose husband Pratap is in jail.Deepak Jadhav, whose brother is behind bars, voted along with his family. ‘‘If I have to get my brother back, I need some people in the government,’’ he said.But not all from the locality could caste their vote. Savita Gosain, mother of Prakash and Haresh, returned home after finding her name missing from the voters’ list. Asked why she changed her mind after the boycott call, Savita said: ‘‘Vote to dalna padega. We are angry at the leaders, but they are going to help in the end. We cannot get anything done on our own.’’The Tadvi family members also could not exercise their franchisee. Rajesh Tadvi went to the polling booth with his family only to find that the names of his wife and mother were missing. Residents complained that about 500 names were missing from the voters’ list in their area.
