UP: Bijnor villagers boycott polls due to polling booth merger

Upset over the absence of a polling booth in their village, residents of Gujjupura in UP's Bijnor district boycotted voting in the initial hours of polling Thursday. However, with the district administration intervening, voters later went on to cast their vote.

The polling booth comes under Nagina (SC) parliamentary constituency. District Magistrate, Bijnor, Sujeet Kumar told PTI that "In Gujjupura, the number of voters is less than 300, and hence under the instructions of the Election Commission, it was merged with the next polling booth located less than two kilometres from the village".

"As per standards set up by the Election Commission, if a polling booth is located within two kilometres from a village, and after adding the smaller-size booth (less than 300 voters) to the bigger size, if the number of voters does not exceed 1,400; then they can be merged. This was done in this case," he said.

Kumar said the count of voters in the village (where residents were demanding a polling booth) was in the range of 150-200, which is a small-size booth. The DM said after the sub-divisional magistrate persuaded people to vote, some of them exercised their franchise, and the rest will vote subsequently.