Jaipur: No election was held in Tonk Municipal Council’s Ward 2 after all four candidates withdrew their nominations amid an ongoing village boycott over the ward’s inclusion in the urban local body following delimitation. Ward 2, which was earlier a gram panchayat known as Dardahind, witnessed a boycott by residents over its inclusion in council. Despite repeated attempts by the district administration and election officials to persuade villagers to participate in the electoral process, they remained firm in their decision to boycott the election.State Election Commission secretary Rajesh Verma said the ward will have a bypoll, likely after six months, while returning officer Seema Khetan said repeated efforts to persuade villagers to participate had failed.Initially, four villagers had filed nominations from the ward. According to sources, they had done so in the hope that if a candidate from outside the ward filed a nomination and secured votes, the boycott would be broken. However, no candidate from another ward came forward to contest from here. The four local candidates subsequently withdrew their nominations under pressure from the villagers.
