Forty nine candidates, who had contested the2010 Zila Parishad election in Palamu, have been disqualified to contest this 2015 Zila Parishad election due in November December here. These 49 candidates will have the right to vote but not to contest the election this time.
Palamu district panchayati raj officer Shanti Kumar Pandey, confirming the disqualification of 49 candidates, said the State Election Commission Ranchi has notified the names of the 49 candidates disqualified from contesting Zila Parishad election in 2015. Pandey gave this information in the presence of DC Palamu K Srinivasan.
State Election Commission Ranchi disqualifies a candidate when he/she fails to deposit the accounts of his/her poll expenditures to the respective returning officer within 30 days from the declaration of the poll results.
Sources said these 49 candidates in Palamu were a defaulter on this count.
Strangely enough there is no disqualification of any candidate who had contested for the post of mukhiya in 2010. Pandey said ' There is no notification of disqualification from SEC Ranchi for candidates for mukhiya post which they contested in 2010'.
Sources said disqualification process is a long drawn affair and SEC Ranchi is too starved of human resources to carry out this in cases of mukhiyas as there should be no doubt a good number of mukhiyas could be as defaulter as zila parishad candidates not submitting accounts of poll expenditures in 30 days time from the day of declaration of results.
Palamu district has 36 seats for zila parishad despite having only 20 blocks. Explaining this Srinivasan said there are some blocks in Palamu which are too big and from such a block two members of zila parishad are elected and this has taken the total of ZP membership to 36 in Palamu despite Palamu having 20 blocks only he reiterated.