Pootaloorani, TN, tense as locals obstruct the minister

Just seven of the 931 eligible voters in Pootaloorani hamlet cast ballots as a result of the violent turn that the poll boycott took on Friday. 19 on-duty officials who received election duty certificates (EDC) cast ballots at the voting place at Karungulam Panchayat Union Middle School here in addition to the seven villagers, an official said. The village’s residents had declared a boycott in response to the region’s fish processing facilities’ terrible stench and the administration’s lack of response.

Pottaloorani saw tense moments on Friday as Ottapidaram MLA MC Shanmugaiah and Fisheries Minister Anitha R Radhakrishnan were prevented from accessing the hamlet by the residents. The MLA had come to persuade the protesting villagers against the election boycott. According to accounts, two unusually laden SUVs carrying thugs and loaded with weapons like machetes and wooden logs reached the area over an hour after the lawmakers were shown the doors.

On condition of anonymity, a villager told TNIE, “About ten goons came wielding machetes, threatened and yelled at us for not casting votes.”

The gathered villagers, according to accounts, grouped up the thugs and pushed the police to take them into custody. But the thugs were supposedly shielded from the crowd by the cops.

One of the protest organizers told TNIE that the villagers themselves showed support for the movement, not the protestors, who prevented anybody from casting a ballot.

An older villager, however, said that she did not cast a ballot because she was afraid of an oral communal directive telling them to boycott the election. “We will be shunned if we disobey the order,” she said.