The ruling BJP has taken a lead in the election of district panchayat chairmen as their candidates are set to get elected unopposed in most of the districts in Uttar Pradesh.

Samajwadi Party alleged on Saturday that their party candidates were not allowed to file nomination papers in many districts. The SP alleged that the official machinery was being used to prevent these candidates from filing their papers. In Gorakhpur and some other places, Samajwadi Party workers staged dharna after their candidates could not file their nominations 

Incensed at the inability of party candidates in filing their nominations, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday sacked district SP chiefs of 11 districts - Gorakhpur, Moradabad, Jhansi, Agra, Mau, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Balrampur, Shravasti, Bhadohi, Gonda and Lalitpur.

In more than 13 districts, only BJP candidates have filed their nomination papers and were likely to be elected unopposed on June 29.  On Saturday, nomination papers were being filed from 11 am to 3 pm and thereafter nomination papers were scrutinised. 

In the election for the posts of District Panchayat chairmen, no one filed nominations against BJP candidates in Gautam Budh Nagar, Gorakhpur, Moradabad, Jhansi, Ghaziabad, Chitrakoot, Meerut, Etah, Mau, Balrampur, Bulandshahr, Gonda and Shravasti. 

The BJP candidates to be elected unopposed are Dr. Antul Tewatia from Bulandshahr, Dr Shefali Singh from Moradabad, Gaurav Chaudhary from Meerut, Mamta Tyagi from Ghaziabad, 21-year-old Aarti Tiwari from Balrampur, Amit Chaudhary in Gautam Budh Nagar, Manoj Rai from Mau, Sadhna Singh from Gorakhpur, Ashok Jatav from Chitrakoot, Pawan Kumar Gautam from Jhansi, Ghanshyam Mishra from Gonda, Dadan Mishra from Shravasti and Kailash Niranjan from Lalitpur. 

In Etawah, SP candidate Abhishek Yadav, a close kin of Mulayam Singh Yadav, was set to be elected unopposed as there was no candidate contesting him. Besides, there are some districts where a large number of nominations were filed. 

Joint candidate of BJP and Apna Dal was in fray in Jaunpur where, Shrikala Singh, wife of don-turned-politico Dhananjay Singh and Neelam, daughter-in-law of former MP Harivansh Singh, have filed their nominations. Here two candidates have filed their nominations from Apna Dal while Nishi Yadav from Samajwadi Party has filed their nominations.  Neelam Singh and Shrikala Singh are independent candidates.

Four candidates are in the fray from Pratapgarh and three from Unnao.  Arun Singh has also filed his nomination from Unnao against BJP's official candidate Shakun Singh. In Ayodhya, BJP's Roli Singh and Samajwadi Party's Indu Sen Yadav filed their papers.

In the 75 districts of the state, there are 3,050 members in district panchayats, who will elect respective district panchayat chairmen. The last date of withdrawal of nomination is June 29 and election, where necessary, would be held from 11am to 15 pm on July 3 and votes will be counted thereafter.