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Residents of over dozen Tamil Nadu villages boycott Lok Sabha elections
The residents of at least a dozen villages in Tamil Nadu on Friday marked their protest against the ruling DMK government by boycotting the Lok Sabha elections.
The residents of at least a dozen villages in Tamil Nadu on Friday marked their protest against the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government by boycotting the Lok Sabha elections.
In Ekanapuram village in Kanchipuram district most of the locals did not turn up to vote. They have been protesting for more than 600 days against the state’s proposal to build a second airport in Parandur. “Out of the 1,400 votes in Ekanapuram, only 21 people – who are government staff – voted. No resident and no farmer voted in this election,” said RL Elango leading the protests. “The government has turned a deaf ear against our concerns for more than 600 days. Soon after election dates were announced, we decided to boycott the elections. Even the 18 people (senior citizens and people with disabilities) who had chosen postal votes refused to vote,” he said.
The DMK government has proposed a second greenfield airport in Parandur to exist with the international airport in Chennai. The project will require land acquisition from Ekanapuram and its surrounding villages. The government had previously announced that they will provide a compensation which is 3.5 times the market rate besides providing an alternate land for housing and a government job for each member of a family affected by the land acquisition.
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However, the villagers have opposed it saying that it will take away their agricultural lands and environmentalists have raised concerns of disrupting the water bodies.
Meanwhile, villagers of Vengaivayal in Pudukottai district are angry over police inaction in a case where they haven’t identified culprits who mixed human faces in an overhead tank way back in December 2022. This tank supplies water to a residential locality where only Dalits live. More than 60 Dalit families boycotted the polls and erected black flags atop their houses.
At least four villages under the Muthanai village panchayat in Cuddalore district boycotted the elections over lack of basic facilities such as drinking water, bitumen roads and transport facilities. Those hailing from the Puthiya Nambiyar village in Nagapattinam protested over their delay in solving their water woes and decided not to vote. Around 500 Dalit families in Mothakkal village in Tiruvannamalai district too did not turn up to vote due to lack of basic amenities.
Tiruvallur district, those from the Kumararajipettai village boycotted the polls angry over a government project due to which two temples had to be demolished. In several of these villages, election officials and police tried to persuade the electors but they were firm to not vote. The election office in Tamil Nadu did not react on these boycotts.
