Over the last few days, a team of district officials, led by the SDM and Block Development Officer Gajendra Singh had held several meetings with villagers convincing them to contest the elections.

Ramdas, a Dalit, denied any pressure of the Thakurs and said, “Most of the Dalits here are illiterate and cannot undertake the functions of a gram pradhan, therefore we do not contest elections.”

Malasa has nearly 3,000 voters with only 150-odd Dalits and Thakurs and Brahmins being the two largest communities. For the June 2008 by-election, a Dalit Chandrika Prasad had filed his nomination but withdrew his paper later, reportedly fearing the backlash of non-Dalits. Another Dalit Lallai failed to find a person to propose his candidature.

Nathi Singh, a Thakur leader of the village, said the community never prevented the Dalits from filing the nominations. “They do not want to contest,” he said.