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Although Rajsamand will go for by-polls on April 17, villagers in Thaneta here did cast their votes on Friday morning, eight days before the scheduled bypolls, for a different cause from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., standing in a long queue with a historic turnout.
However, the voting here was not held to elect political leaders but to get a liquor shop closed in the village. Together the villagers were successful in their endeavour as they voted unitedly in favour of closure of this liquor shop. As per information, the villagers were quite unhappy with the opening of a liquor shop in the village recently and had been protesting against it. However as the shop continued operating, the villagers called a Chaupal and decided to vote against the opening of this shop. They finalised a polling date and asked the villagers to vote for and against the liquor shop in the village. As per the rule, it was decided that the liquor shop will be closed if there were over 51% votes cast against it. A total of 95.62 per cent villagers voted against the liquor shop. The villagers in fact had requested leaders from both the Congress and the BJP to get the shop closed as they have been visiting the village for campaigning for the by- polls. However, they did not get anything except assurances. Hence polling was held on Friday, eight days before the by-polls and 95.62 % votes were cast demanding the closure of the liquor shop. The voting started at 8 a.m. and continued till 5 p.m. Out of a total of 3244 votes, 2307 votes were cast. A total of 95.62 per cent that is 2206 voted for the closure of the shop while only 61 votes were cast in favour of its continuing operation. In fact, this is the third time when people in this district came out to find a solution to the problem of liquor addiction. In 2016, a liquor shop was closed after voting was held in Kachhbali panchayat of this district. In 2018 too, a liquor shop was closed after voting in Mandawar and now this is the third time when villagers forced the closure of a liquor shop by voting. --IANS arc/bg/ash ( 390 Words) 2021-04-10-17:34:03 (IANS)
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