Even as voters defied Maoist threats to take part in voting at polling booths in once Maoist hotbeds of Saranda forest and hilly terrain of Budha Pahad in Singhbhum and Palamu Lok Sabha seats respectively of Jharkhand, there was a vote boycott in a polling booth to protest “poor” road conditions.

Villagers in Barkani under Chakradharpur block of West Singhbhum district falling under the Singhbhum Lok Sabha seat, nearly 130km from Jharkhand capital Ranchi vent their anger against poor road conditions but not exercising their voting on Monday.

“After coming to know about the vote boycott, calls of the villager’s officials from the local administration reached the village and tried to persuade them to exercise their voting rights. But unfortunately, they did not relent. The villagers were complaining about poor road conditions,” said Jharkhand chief electoral officer K. Ravikumar.

He, however, said that this was the only instance and voting passed away peacefully across all the four Lok Sabha seats of Singhbhum, Khunti, Lohardaga and Palamu on Monday.

For Jharkhand, this was the first phase of the voting.

Meanwhile, according to reports from Chakradharpur, the villagers had earlier informed the local authorities that they would not vote till their demands were met. However, it is alleged that the local administration did not take it seriously.

Local reporters claimed that not a single voter reached the polling centre at the Primary School Barkani, Chakradharpur in booth number 83 till 5pm, the official timing of election.

Chakradharpur zonal officer and officials from Toklo police station Parmeshwar Oraon tried to pacify the voters and persuaded them to come to the polling booth. But all their efforts failed.