Candidates in some of the pockets of Jharkhand are either not turning up for filing nominations out of Naxal fear or they have been made to withdraw nominations for giving way to single candidates to win the seat during Panchayat elections. In Khunti district alone, out of one 175 wards, 133 wards will get their ward members elected unopposed. Similarly in latehar, four candidates reportedly, forced to withdraw their nominations on Wednesday.
Khunti SP Anish Gupta, however, claimed that the police was yet to receive any formal complaint in this regard. “Although, we have received such information from some of the pockets, but no such complaint has been lodged with the police so far in this regard,” said the SP. To deal with situation, police have launched extensive anti-Naxal operations in some of the vulnerable areas, said Gupta.
Moreover, there is also a sense of dissatisfaction among people against the Government policy of giving no power and remuneration to the ward members. “By not filing nomination for Panchayat polls, people are trying to show there distrust against the system. They also held gram sabhas in different areas urging people not to file nominations,” said a senior officer in district administration of Khunti requesting anonymity.
In addition to that people are also quite dissatisfied with the reservation policy of the State Government under which several majority communities in some of the wards are not getting a chance to contest elections, while seats have been reserved for the minority communities having only 2-3 households in a ward, the official said. Primary reason behind such a low turnout was lack of remuneration as candidates believed that there must be an amount of at least Rs500 fixed by the State Government to encourage people for contesting elections.
Four candidates who withdrew their nominations on Wednesday include – Vishnu Deo Singh, Simon Bodra, Chaman Padhaiya and Ram Ganesh Singh. All of them had filed their nominations for the post of Mukhiya in Karwadih Panchayat of latehar block.