Chennai, April 25: The head of a panchayat for all of five minutes. That is the fate of Dalits who win elections in the village panchayats of Pappapatti, Keeripatti and Nattamangalam in Tamil Nadu, where the post of president is reserved for the community.

The state election commission, which oversees polling for all local bodies, called for byelections on April 19 to fill slots at various levels in local organisations across Tamil Nadu, including the three panchayats reserved for Dalits.

However, elections could not be held in Pappapatti as one candidate died before the polling day. In Nattamangalam, nobody filed nominations.

In Keeripatti, one Azhagu Malai, put up on behalf of residents of the village, defeated Poongodi of the Dalit Panthers of India.

Malai was formally ushered in as president of the Keeripatti panchayat. But like his predecessors, he only went through the ritual of being sworn in.

Malai had brought his resignation letter with him. Five minutes after being sworn-in as the panchayat president, he did an about-turn, only to hand over his resignation to the local election officer, Ramachandran. The stunned official later said the Theni district collector ?will decide on the resignation of Azhagu Malai?.

The insurmountable handicap the Dalits face is that these three village panchayats are in the midst of the OBC Thevar-dominated areas in south Tamil Nadu. As such, elections to these panchayats cannot be held at all, or if held, the elected Dalit heads ?can dare to be in office for just five minutes?.

Elections to these three panchayats have been boycotted for several years now by Dalits who fear upper-caste wrath and backlash.

Occasionally if elected, they are subtly pressured to step down, as the Thevars cannot even entertain the idea of a Dalit being a panchayat head ?in their (Thevars) domain?.

This murder of democracy in these village panchayats have been now going on for nine years, lamented Thirumavalavan, a DPI leader. The scenario of poll boycotts in the three panchayats had been averted in the last couple of years after the DPI jumped into the fray and put up candidates as the local Dalits were too terrified to even file their nomination papers, said Thirumavalavan.