The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made Bhagirathi Kunjwal its candidate for the post of the district panchayat president of Chamoli. The election has been necessitated by the resignation of Munni Devi following her election as MLA from Tharali Assembly constituency. The State BJP media in-charge, Devendra Bhasin said that the decision has been taken by the State party president Ajay Bhatt on Friday. He said that the Chamoli district party president has been asked to take necessary steps for nomination of Kunjwal. The party has appointed Tharali MLA Munni Devi as in-charge of the party for this election while Manoj Bhandari has been made as convenor of the election.
The by-election for the vacant post of the president of the district panchayat of Chamoli would be held on November 5 and the counting of the votes and declaration of result would be done on the same day.
The candidates would file nomination on November 1 and the scrutiny of nomination papers would be done on November 1 itself. The candidates can withdraw their nomination papers on November 3.
The by-election for the coveted post of the three-tier panchayati raj system has been necessitated by the resignation of Munni Devi Shah from the post.
She had been elected as the president of Chamoli district panchayat in 2013. She had been later elected to the Assembly from Tharali constituency through by-election after her husband Magan Lal Shah who was BJP MLA had died of dengue in January this year.
However, even after her election as MLA, Munni Devi had initially refused to resign from the post of the president of district panchayat. She had quit after the district panchayat vice-president Lakhpat Butola moved High Court (HC) on the plea that she could not simultaneously hold both the posts.