2 scared to vote

The buzz, the heat and the dust generated by the high-decibel Uttar Pradesh election campaign hasn't touched a nondescript village of Kullipura in Gautambudh district near Noida.

For village elderly like Siria, also a former pradhan, the campaigns have no meaning since he hasn't cast his vote for the past three elections and neither has any villager.

The reason: they are scared. Kullipura has its polling booth in the nearby Ghangola village, a Gujar bastion and the gujars have never allowed the villagers to cast their vote.

“Other people cast our votes and therefore we don't go,” says Siria. Agrees another villager Daya, “We are afraid of the people form Ghangola and so I have never voted.”

The Election Commission has, for the first time, done a vulnerable mapping of the entire state of UP to identify areas with a history of disruption and to help people cast their votes without fear.

I am in possession of the copy of a letter that has been sent out to the concerned district magistrates to address the problem on a micro level.

“If people don't come out to vote till 12 we will go and motivate the people,” says DM Gautambudh Nagar Ajay Chauhan.

EC has come out with a list of ghost voters for the first time. Ghost voters are people not residing in the area, have no family linkages but who have been issued photo ID cards.