Counting over, focus on indirect rural polls now
LUCKNOW: With the conclusion of the counting of votes for the three-tier panchayat polls that witnessed direct voting, the focus has now shifted to the indirect elections to the posts of zila panchayat and kshetra panchayat chiefs. The stakes are said to be high for political parties in this final round of the rural polls
A total 3,050 zila panchayat ward members and 75,852 kshetra panchayat ward members, who have been elected directly, will now cast their vote to elect the zila panchayat chiefs and block chiefs respectively. The indirect elections are to be held for 75 posts of zila panchayat chairpersons and 826 kshetra panchayat chairpersons (block chiefs). General voters have no role in the indirect elections.
People dealing with the issue said the State Election Commission (SEC) may declare the poll programme for the indirect elections very soon provided the state government did not decide to defer the exercise for some time in view of the pandemic.
“SEC may announce the election dates very soon to wind up the entire exercise by the Mayend as already directed by the (Allahabad) high court,” they said. As per the Allahabad high court order of February 4, 2021, the state government and the state election commission have a mandate to complete the exercise of the indirect election by May 25 after finishing the direction election exercise by May 10.
The state government has already allotted the zila panchayat and kshetra panchayat chiefs’ posts to various castes as per the reservation policy. The current five-year tenure of all
the zila and block chiefs has also expired, making the fresh elections compulsory.
“Now, if the state government and SEC want to defer the indirect polls, they will have to seek the court’s permission for the same since the court had fixed the deadline,” a senior government official said, adding, “There are little chances of the government deferring the polls.” Political parties have very high stakes in the indirect elections and actively field and back candidates to increase their clout in local politics. “Indirect elections to the posts of zila and blocks chiefs always witness intense lobbying and blatant misuse of muscle and money power to buy votes for preferred candidates,” the official said.
“In fact, these are the indirect elections that will demonstrate various political parties’ real worth and clout in state politics,” he added.