'No Train, No Votes': This Gujarat Village's Decision To Boycott Assembly Elections Over Unmet Demands Is Garnering Attention

In a democratic setting, elections are a window for people to express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with those in power. It signifies the idea that a democratically elected government's role is to serve the people's interest, and if it fails to do so, people can replace the government with another competent power. Building on this idea, the people of Navsari decided to exercise their rights to express their dissatisfaction with the elected government.

Navsari happens to be the eleventh largest city in Gujarat by population, and the vote count from this constituency would considerably impact the final results. At such a time, the residents of Ancheli and 17 other villages of the Navsari assembly constituency put up banners that declared a boycott of the election polls and banned the political leaders, including those from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), from entering the villages for campaigns.

Authorities Repeatedly Ignored Requests

In Gujarat, the elections will be held in two phases by December, and the final counting will take place on December 8. However, banners posted near Ancheli Railway station and in areas surrounding the villages read, "Train nahi toh vote nahi (no train, no votes)". Political parties too have been banned from entering the villages for election campaigns. The election boycott comes in the face of unmet demands to stop the local trains at the Ancheli railway station.

After no heed was paid to the repeated requests made by the villagers, they decided to take things into their own hands and express their discontent towards the ruling government. Villagers had repeatedly requested authorities to stop local trains at the Ancheli railway station as many villagers relied on this form of public transport.

A member of the Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee (ZRUCC), Chhotubhai Patil, conveyed that no concerned people were responding to the issue they had submitted. An article by the New Indian Express quoted him saying, "A local passenger train used to stop here since 1966, but it was stopped due to the Covid pandemic. After it restarted, it does not stop here at our station." People from about 19 villages are dependent on this station to commute to and fro from their jobs. Most of them are daily wagers who cannot afford to miss out on a day's work. However, despite taking these concerns to responsible authorities, villagers have received no help.

This election, the ruling government of BJP is facing a stiff electoral challenge, with the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party putting their best foot forward. The election then becomes a decisive point for the villagers as well as the government. In order to win a seat in the constituency, the competing parties would have to considerably look into the people's interests and woes.

People Forced To Take Costlier Private Transport

With the train not stopping at the Ancheli station, the lives and livelihoods of students, daily wage workers, and many others have been adversely impacted. Prachi Patel, a college student, said that she was regularly facing issues with attending morning lectures due to a lack of transportation. This has affected her studies and caused much concern in terms of attending college every day.

Hitesh Nayak, a resident of the constituency, said that at least 18 villages have so far boycotted the elections. He noted that people of the village, who were regular passengers of the train, have been facing issues as they are forced to take private vehicles out of desperation and spend over ₹300 every day. This ₹300 is an amount that many daily wagers could save for their necessities when public transport was available to them.

Patil, who has been actively working to take this concern to the responsible authorities, stated, "We are not demanding the new one. We just want the same train, but still, the local administrators or representatives are not responding." As a response to the officials' negligence, Patil, along with the villagers, decided to send back the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) with no votes. Their decision ahead of the elections has been creating momentum and will hopefully receive due attention from officials and authorities.

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