Villages in the Net of opinion polls ahead of panchayat elections

› For my village, I chose the candidates based on popularity among locals, those associated with parties, and some other prominent leaders. JAGTAR SINGH CHAHAL, resident of › Alampur Mandran in Mansa

It is a good sign that technology is growing in rural areas and people are trying to use it for poll process; but it can be exploited too. NAVJIT SINGH JOHAL, professor at Punjabi University, Patiala

FARIDKOT: Although the panchayat polls have not been formally announced in Punjab, the trend of online opinion polls, usually used for the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections, has surfaced in some villages of the state.

In Punjab, where the panchayat elections are expected to be held in June - July this year, the online opinion polls have been started to find the suitable candidate or build a consensus to select the sarpanch.

These polls have been created on a website strawpoll.com and are locally trending on Facebook, where users share the poll and ask others to vote. The poll asks users, “Who should be the sarpanch of the village” and gives some names to select from. It also gives an option to view results.

For example, a poll has been created to find out who will be the sarpanch of village Ghall Khurd in Ferozepur. For this, names of four candidates are given in the poll for voting. In the poll, a total of 527 votes have been polled, in which one Kamal Singh has got maximum 240 votes (45.5%).

Similarly, another poll has been created for Nanhera village of Patiala district, in which names of 11 candidates are given for the post of sarpanch. The poll has managed to get 1,435 votes. A person named Doctor Sahab Singh has topped the list with 530 votes.

Jagtar Singh Chahal of Mansa district, who has created a poll for his village Alampur Mandran, said that he made the choice of candidates based on their popularity among local people, those associated with political parties, and the self-claimed front runners for sarpanch.

According to Navjit Singh Johal, a professor of journalism at Punjabi University, Patiala, it is a good sign that technology is growing in the rural areas and people are trying to use it for electoral process. However, he believes that there could be a possibility of exploitation also.