Voters of Bollavaram village in Kallur mandal exercised their franchise after a gap of 30 years in Wednesday’s election. The village voted for the first time after Independence in 1983 when Erasu Ayyapu Reddy contested the Lok Sabha polls.
The sudden change in the perspective of the villagers who have been consistently boycotting elections caught everyone by surprise.According to reports, the village was still divided over taking part in the election. The older generation and Communist sympathizers wanted to boycott polls this time also while the younger generation wanted to exercise their franchise.
Finally, the elders yielded on the ground that they could vote for None of The Above (NOTA) and thus reject all candidates.
The elders felt that they could now officially reject candidates, with feudal mindset. The poll boycott by villagers dates back to the days of the Communist movement of the sixties and seventies. However, the villagers never showed this kind of reservations in local polls to elect sarpanches.
Noted CPI(ML) leader Neelam Ramachandraiah, who hailed from the village, provided leadership to the downtrodden in the area in the sixties and early seventies. Neelam Ramachandraiah died in a police encounter in Khammam in 1972. Even after his death, the villagers followed the teachings of Neelam Ramachandraiah. Over the years, they successfully built an equitable social system wherein all disputes are settled in the village itself without involving police. The village has produced many doctors.
source: The Hindu
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