Thousands of residents of a village in Gujarat’s Bharuch district had their drinking water supply cut for nearly four days, allegedly following the panchayat election loss of a BJP candidate whose father heads the committee that controls the water supply.The district police on Saturday arrested Khalid Malek and his son Shakil Malek, a local BJP leader who was defeated in the Jambusar Taluka Panchayat election from Kavi-2 (Dehgam) seat. Both were later released on bail.The water supply to Dehgam village, which has a population of nearly 10,000, was cut on April 28, the day the results of the April 26 elections to local self-government bodies in Gujarat were announced. The supply was restored after police intervention on Friday evening.The elections saw the BJP winning a majority of the self-governing bodies across Bihar, and in the 22-seat Jambusar taluka panchayat, the BJP returned to power by winning 14 seats. The Congress won six seats, while AAP and an Independent won one each.Shakil contested the Kavi-2 seat, where the other candidates were Congress’s Tanvir Malek and AAP’s Sohel Shaikh — all residents of Dehgam. On April 28, when the election results were declared, AAP candidate Shaikh won with 2,100 votes, while Shakil got 1,098 votes and Tanvir got 1,300.Following the defeat, Shakil and his father allegedly went around the village brandishing swords and threatening residents that they would not get drinking water. Videos of the incident went viral on social media. After verifying the videos, police lodged a case.According to former sarpanch and gram panchayat member Ibrahim Malek, the village residents used to get water from a pond until around 30 years ago, when an NRI, through the Islahul Muslimeen Trust, donated funds and an underground water pipeline was laid, connecting the village with the Narmada river through the Jhanor pumping station.Story continues below this ad“The water is delivered to the distribution centre from where it goes to different households. A five-member Dehgam Water Committee was formed, headed by a president, to run the water distribution network. For the operation and maintenance of the water distribution centre, and the salaries of two staff members, nominal fees are collected from individual households. Currently, Khalid Malek is the president of the water committee,” Ibrahim Malek told The Indian Express.According to village sarpanch Mohsin Malek, after the water supply was stopped on April 28, other members of the water committee appealed to Khalid to resume the supply, “but he and his son were firm on their decision”.In those four days without supply, residents resorted to taking water from a nearby well and borewells. One of the residents said they were “scared of the father-son duo and did not dare to confront them or lodge a police complaint”. The matter was taken up by police after videos of the duo went viral and elicited social media calls for action.Jambusar Taluka BJP president Kuldeep Sinh Yadav told The Indian Express, “After learning about the incident, we reached the village and held a meeting with the villagers, including the water committee president Khalid Malek, his son Shakil Malek, and police officials and restored the water supply. We told Khalid that the water is given free of cost to the people by the Gujarat government, and nobody should dare to stop the supply from reaching villagers. We have informed our party’s higher-ups about the actions taken by Shakil Malek and his father to stop the supply of drinking water to the villagers. Now it is up to the party to make a decision.”Story continues below this adKavi police inspector K M Chaudhary said, “We first started the water supply after taking Khalid Malek into confidence and later arrested him and his son Shakil Malek from their home on Saturday. They are presently out on bail. We suspect that due to the defeat of Shakil in the local body polls, both father and son had made the decision to stop the supply of water to the village households. We will take statements from the villagers, the sarpanch, and other individuals to know what drove both father and son to come out with swords in their hands.”The Maleks were booked under BNS section 223 (b) (disobedience to the order promulgated by a public servant).AAP’s Sohel Malek, who was elected from the Kavi-2 seat, said, “Shakil Malek and his father Khalid Malek could not digest their defeat in the election, and because of that, they stopped the water supply. Water has been distributed in the village for the last 30 years, and not for a single day has it been stopped. This was the first time such a thing had happened. The public faced a lot of problems during the last three days.”Former sarpanch Ibrahim Malek also said the stopping of the drinking water supply was an unprecedented situation for the village. “People faced water problems, but they did not reach out to them (the father-son duo) due to their quarrelsome nature. Water supply has now resumed. The villagers are considering forming a new water committee to oversee the operation and maintenance of the village’s water distribution.”