Alleging rigging in the nominations of zila panchayat chairmen on Saturday, the Communist Party of India (CPI) urged the Election Commission to order re-nominations in the districts, from where complaints poured in, and also initiate action against policemen and officials involved in it.
In a statement issued in Lucknow on Saturday, CPI state secretary Girish said that it was akin to aborting election proceedings before the completion of election. He alleged that such an anomaly happened for the first time in the history of the zila panchayat chairmen’s elections.
“Over a dozen contestants from the opposition parties were barred from filing nominations, several faced cancellation of their candidature, several others were kidnapped or forced to join the BJP by getting them bullied through the police,” he alleged.
The CPI leader termed the BJP regime as an emergency of brutal fascism. “Everybody knows that the BJP had faced a crushing defeat in the panchayat elections and had not enough winners to stake claim of majority. Despite this, the chief minister announced that the BJP would be winning 65 posts of zila panchayat chairmen. The CM did a whirlwind tour to different districts guising them as stockl taking of corona crisis but in fact, the tours were an indirect order to the administration and local BJP unit to achieve the target by hook or by crook,” he alleged.
Girish appealed to the opposition parties to protest against the BJP’s election rigging tactics and said that the CPI would continue to raise the issue in the times to come.