Won’t let women queue up with men: A Jamnagar village boycotts polls

“Our village believes in ojal pratha (women keeping their faces veiled and not mixing with the opposite gender in public). There would be a polling booth exclusively for women in our village since Independence. But the EC made the women-only booth a general booth this election. So, villagers held a meeting on November 25 and decided to boycott the polling,” Brijrajsinh Jadeja, a former Congress MLA who is now in the BJP, and is among the residents of Dhrafa, said.

Sourabh Pardhi, Collector and District Electoral Officer (DEO) of Jamnagar, sent the Jamjodhpur mamlatdar and taluka development officer to persuade the villagers to cast their ballot, but they stuck to their boycott and not a person turned up till voting closed.

Dhrafa sarpanch Dhramendrasinh Jadeja said they came to know through the local teacher that the EC would not follow the usual practice of women-only booth at the Kanya Shala or girls’ school. “We told the sub-divisional magistrate and mamlatdar that women of our village won’t stand in queues alongside men, and submitted a memorandum. But the EC didn’t grant our request,” the sarpanch said.

Dhrafa is part of the Jamjodh Assembly constituency, which was won by the Congress last time. Brijrajsinh was elected MLA from the Bhanvad Assembly constituency on a Congress ticket in 2007. In 2012, Bhanvad seat was delimited and merged with Khambhalia seat.

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Not a single vote was polled in Dhrafa in Jamnagar district as residents held a boycott in protest against their traditional women-only polling station being converted into a general one this time. pic.twitter.com/WhSrkPQwMy

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Dhrafa is dominated by the Kshatriya community, to which both Brijrajsinh and Dharmendrasinh belong. The village also has Brahmins, Kolis (who are OBCs) and Dalits.

“We are ready to exercise our franchise even tomorrow if the EC sets up a women-only booth separately,” Brijrajsinh, a member of the BJP’s district coordination committee for Jamnagar, said. He added that they had also raised the matter with “our party president”. “But things didn’t work out.”

DEO Pardhi said the electoral rolls for the two booths were not separate on the basis of gender. “However, women’s only booth used to be mentioned against names of women voters. Generally, this is not done, but there was such a tradition in this village. This time round, the EC objected to it. We made every effort to persuade the people and submitted one more proposal to the EC (in this regard). But the Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat rejected it,” Pardhi said.

The DEO added that despite the boycott, Jamjodhpur constituency recorded 65.28% turnout, the highest among the four Assembly seats in the district, and substantially higher than the district’s average turnout of 59.29%.

A poll boycott was also observed by Bharuch district’s Kesar village, over 450 km away, demanding a bridge on the Kim river. The over 700 voters in the village have been asking for a bridge to avoid long distances to reach its gram panchayat on the other side of the Kim river.

Villagers say problems worsen during the monsoon season, with students struggling to access school, and others the local ration shop.

A resident, Suresh Patel, said, “We have made representations to Bharuch BJP MP Mansukh Vasava, the Bharuch District Collector, but nobody listened to our demands, as a result of which we decided to boycott the Assembly elections.”

Collector Tushar Sumera said: “Four villages had announced a boycott, out of which we managed to convince three. But the people of Kesar remained adamant.”

The seat falls in Jhagadia constituency, which was won by the Bharatiya Tribal Party’s (BTP) Chhotu Vasava last time. While the BTP was a Congress ally then, Chhotu Vasava is contesting as an Independent from Jhagadia this time.