With the huge loss to the standing Rabi crops due to unseasonal rains in March/April followed by the specter of drought looming large over the state, the ruling Samajwadi party faces an uphill task in retaining its support base in the forthcoming elections to the three tier panchayat bodies.
The notification for the elections is likely to be issued by the state government within next 7-10 days. The panchayat elections likely to be completed by December to fill l the post of 59,164 posts of gram pradhans, 74,3297 gram panchayats, 78,075 kshetra panchayats and 3,134 zila panchayat members.
Concerned over the delay in distribution of the compensation to the farmers UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav recently shot off a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to expedite the release of over Rs 2,800 crore to the state from the National disaster relief fund.
The revenues minister Shivpal Yadav too has launched a campaign in his department for the early disposal of the cases of land consolidation in rural areas. The revenue department has also directed the district revenue authorities to dispose all the pending cases at the level of Tehsildar and sub divisional magistrate regarding the mutation and petty land disputes.
In the media and political circles, panchayat polls have been popularly dubbed as the semifinal before the 2017 assembly elections, when chief minister Akhilesh Yadav would seek reelection after his maiden stint in office. Akhilesh Yadav took over as the youngest chief minister of the state in March 2012. In 2012 the SP had formed the government fir the first time on its own by winning clear majority in the state assembly. The SP had won 226 seats out of the total 403 seats in UP assembly.
The panchayat elections assumes further importance for the Samajwadi party as by the end of October or mid November the results of the Bihar assembly elections will be out. The trends and pre poll survey have predicted positive gains for the NDA in Bihar. The NDA has been further strengthened after the Samajwadi Party walked out of the anti BJP grand alliance in Bihar.
The importance being attached to the panchayat polls by the ruling party could be gauged from the fact that the SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav in last one month has repeatedly scolded his chief mi9nister son and the minister for their careless attitude towards the panchyat polls. For several times in last more than one month he exhorted his party cadres to gear up for the polls.
Citing the experience of the left parties in West Bengal, Mulayam Singh reminded the cadres that the left parties ruled for 35 years but they lost the power in the state after they lost the panchayat elections. In fact, he was critical of the poll preparedness of the party and had even doubted the prospects of SP candidates in the panchayat polls. However, he had asked the chief minister to ensure free and fair panchayat elections.
Meanwhile, UP cabinet minister and SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said the state government would ensure free and fair panchayat elections to be conducted in most transparent manner. The SP leader claimed that in 2014 parliament elections the BJP won 71 lok Sabha seats under the SP regime, since the ruling party upheld democratic values.
In the three-tier panchayat polls, over 11 crore voters would elect around 8, 84,410 representatives, including gram pradhan, the members of the gram panchayat, kshetra panchayat and zila panchayat.
Meanwhile the state election commission for the local bodies has published the final electoral rolls for the three tier panchayats. As many as 11.43 crore voters will be able to exercise their franchise in 59, 163 village panchayats. With the revision of rolls around 28 lakh new voters have been added to voters list. The number of electors in panchyats in last elections in 2010 was 11.15 crore. During the revision names of 2.12 crore voters were added while 1.84 crores names were deleted from the rolls. With the publication of the final rolls the number of electors in panchayats is around 66 percent of the state’s population.