In the last and final stage of the Panchayat elections, the contestants for the position of President and Vice President District Panchayat filed their nomination papers on Wednesday.
The elections for these positions of district Panchayat would be held on August 5.The Deputy Commissioner State Election Commission told The Pioneer that 28 candidates filed their nomination for the position of President District Panchayat while 31 nominations were filed for the position of Vice President District Panchayat in the 12 districts of state baring Haridwar.
Ishwari Prasad was unanimously elected the District Panchayat President of Udham Singh Nagar as he was the only person to file the nomination paper.
According to the SEC schedule the withdrawal of names is on August 2 and elections if required would be on August 5. The results for these apex positions of the Panchayati raj system would be declared onAugust 5. For these positions of the district Panchayat there is a direct contest between the major political parties BJP and Congress. The BJP has declared its official list of party candidates for 10 positions of District Panchayat President.
Congress on the other hand has refrained from declaring its official candidates but has deployed senior ministers as in- charge of different district.Senior leader Harak Singh Rawat for example was given responsibility of Pauri, Rudrapryag and Tehri Garhwal districts while Pritam Singh was given charge of Dehradun district.During the filing of nomination papers top congress leaders were also present along side the party sponsored candidates.
In Dehradun the BJP state president accompanied Madhu Chauhan and Subhash Sharma the official party candidates for the position of President and Vice President respectively.BJP leader and Mussoorie MlA Ganesh Joshi, Cant MlA Harbans Kapoor and Prem Chand Agarwal were also present at the time of filing the papers.Chaman Singh the brother of Congress leader and Cabinet Minister Prirtam Singh was accompanied by congress leaders lalchand Sharma, SP Singh and Upendra Thapli.
In Pauri, Dipti Rawat, the wife of senior Congress leader and Cabinet Minster Harak Singh filed her nomination for the position of District Panchayat president while Himani Negi wife of former District President Kesar Singh Negi filed papers as the BJP candidate.
