Village in Rahul Gandhi's political home turf shun voting

Amethi: The residents of a village in Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's political home turf Amethi on Tuesday boycotted the poll process in protest against having no proper road link to the outside world.

The boycott of voting by electorate of Parsauli village, barely 3 kilometres from high profile town Amethi, was confirmed by returning officer for Amethi segment and sub-divisional magistrate AK Kanaujiya.

None of the 649 voters, including 339 men and 310 women of Parsauli village exercised their franchise today, with the polling booth number 120, set for the voters, kept waiting for the voters for the entire day, said Kanaujiya.

The Parsauli voters shunned the polling booth resisting district administration's bid to persuade them to cast their votes.

Village Parsauli is 3 km from Amethi town on Amethi - Durgapur highway but has no proper link road.

Explaining the reason for boycotting the poll process, Parsauli native KN Sharma, a retired station master of the Indian Railways said that the road to connect the village with main road was constructed decades ago during the tenure of late MP Sanjay Gandhi but it now virtually stands obliterated from the face of earth.

Sharma along with other Parsauli natives said that no representative ever took care of this village.

Meanwhile, the poll officials put the voters' turnout in Amethi district up to 5 pm was 56 percent.