ALLAHABAD: As the controversy over the recent amendments to the SCST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act refuses to die down, a group of shopkeepers in Pratapgarh put up posters outside their shops asking Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members to stay away and not seek votes from them, on Tuesday, to protest against the legislation.The incident comes shortly after an upper caste village in Baillia declared itself a ‘NOTA’ village to protest against the recent amendments to the SCST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.Displayed outside shops in Makoonpur Bazaar , under the jurisdiction of Kodhaur police station, the posters read, “Yeh savarno ka kshetra hai, yahan par SCST ka virodh hai, kripaya BJP liye vote na mange (This area is dominated by people belonging to upper caste, we are against the SCST Act, please don’t ask for votes for BJP).One of the first posters was installed by Shashi Tiwari outside his electronics shop in Makoonpur Bazaar and soon other shopkeepers followed suit.“Rather than protesting on streets and taking our issues to the Union government, we have found a better way. To convey our message to the government, we have placed posters outside our shops,” said Tiwari.“We are protesting against the SCST Act. There are many instances where false cases have been registered against people belonging to upper castes and no one tried to know the facts,” said the Pratapgarh-based shopkeeper said.Tiwari, who claims to be a BJP worker, said, “Those belonging to SCST community are openly threatening those belonging to the upper castes to implicate them in false cases. As a result, the upper castes are in a dilemma.”“Jab apno se dard hota hai, tabhi dard bayan hota hai (We were taken aback by a decision taken by our own party. We are now finding it difficult to express our pain),” said Tiwari.The protesting shopkeepers said that they have been appealing to their relatives, neighbours and friends to not vote for the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.Another protesting shopkeeper, said, “We have displayed posters in every nook and corner of the market to express our pain and have made it clear that anyone seeking votes for BJP for the parliamentary polls is not welcome here.”After being alerted, police rushed to the market to take stock of the situation.The protesting traders said they got the idea to put up posters outside their shops from social networking website Facebook, after many shopkeeper in other states put up banners outside their shops.Last week, residents of Khachikimai village in Kaushambi had put up a big banner to restrict the entry of BJP MPs, MLAs and office-bearers coming to the village seeking votes, as a mark of protest against the lack of development in the area.The banner read, “Kaam nahin, toh vote nahin (no work, no vote).”

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