With the notification for the three-tier Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRI) polls, the code of conduct has come in to force, restricting the misuse of Government facilities and power of the ruling party till February 21 2017. Election shall be held for 853 Zilla Prishad Zone members, 6,665 Panchayat Samiti members and 6,801 Sarapanchs and 92,029 ward members under the PRI system in five phases on February 13,15,17,19 and 21 where 2, 60,92, 507 rural voters shall cast their votes in 92,052 booths, using paper ballot.
There shall be no elections in six Panchayat samitees due to HC stay order and in one Gram panchahay at Dhinkia of Jagatsinghpur district.
The polling shall be held from 7 am till 12 noon on the election days and the counting of votes shall be done at the booth from 1pm onwards the same day. Election to the post of Panchayat Samiti Chairperson and Zilla Parishad Chairperson shall be held on March 11 and 12 respectively by the elected members of the respective bodies.
The SEC has fixed the expenditure limit at Rs80,000 for a Samiti member or a Sarapanch and Rs2 lakh for a Zilla Parishad member. Twoelection observers will be engaged to oversee the election fairness aswell the stipulated expenditure limit. The State Government has already made provision for 50 per cent reservation of seats for women candidates in all tiers and rotation of SC/ST/Women etc seats after each term through suitable amendment of Panchayat, Smitee and ZP Acts.
Every State has its own PRI system. In Odisha, there is a 3- tier institution system consisting of Gram Panchayat at village level , Panchayat Samiti at Block level and Zilla Parishad at district level. At Gram Panchayat level, voters elect Sarapanch and ward members directly. For Panchayat samitee, the villagers of a Panchayat elect a Samiti member and later, the elected samiti members of a Block elect indirectly a Panchayat Samiti Chairperson and vice-chairperson.
Similarly, a cluster of panchayats under an Assembly constituency constitute a Zilla Parishad zone and voters cast their vote to elect a Zilla Parishad member. All ZP members of a district assemble at the district ZP level and elect their Zilla Parishad Chairperson and Deputy.
In Odisha, the ZP election is fought with party symbols whereas the rest go non-partisan. As ZP election is fought in party line, it becomes a mini-Assembly election. In one Assembly constituency, there can be 5-10 ZP zones. Therefore, performance in ZP election is considered as an indication of voters’ mood for next Assembly poll. When ZP election is fought in party lines, the candidate has to depend on Sarpanch, Samitee member and ward member candidates to harvest village votes. Thus a political party sets a group of candidates starting from ward member to Sarpanch, Samitee member to ZP member. As the sarpanch, samitee and ward members have to be non-political, they do not use party symbols but claim their party affiliation during campaign. Sometimes, they write their supporter party in poster and banner or use the colour of party flags, though it is illegal.
Finally, the poll management becomes the responsibility of the constituency MlA or the MlA aspirant. If the chain of candidates fails in the elections, his prospects for 2019 election are at stake.
last election to PRI bodies took place in February 2012 in five phases where over 2.4 crore voters elected 87,528 ward members , 6,228 sarpanches, 6,231 Samiti members and 854 Zilla parishad(ZP) members.
The average voter turnout was 69.4 per cent and re-polling was done in 12 per cent of booths. The last election was boycotted by the voters of Dhinkia GP of Jagatsinghpur as protest against Posco steel project and the Jhodia community of Kashipur Block ( 3 ZP zones)demanding ST status, and some villagers of Mayurbhanj and Baleswar districts.
Interestingly, Maoist sympathizers participated in election instead of calling boycott. Highest number of candidates as large as 3,989 size were elected unopposed in Ganjam district comprising of 2,014 ward members, 49 Sarpanchs and one Zilla Parishad member.
The BJD had dominated the elections, winning 27 Zilla Parishad Chairpersons out of 30 districts, leaving Congress with Jharsuguda,
Kondhamal and Gajapati districts, though BJD has majority in 26 ZP bodies and Congress has majority in one .BJP could not win single district body chairperson post. Similarly, BJD’s share was 651 Zilla Parishad seats, leaving the Congress behind with 128, BJP with 36, JMM with 11, CPM with 2, CPI with 1 and independents with 22 seats out of the polled 851 ZP seats.
like previous election, BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has already completed his tour of the districts to inaugurate various infrastructure projects and has announced several schemes for public and Government officials to woo the voters. There are a few grassroots protests from teachers and Panchayat body staff which might affect the BJD’s poll performance in certain areas unless they are calmed down.
There are also some endemic intra-party leadership conflict districts where BJD performance shall be affected unless action is taken to maintain unity. The anti-incumbency against its rural representatives has been neutralized by State Government effecting annual rotation policy of reservation seats which automatically removes the sitting representative. BJD has strong presence in women segment due to reservation policy and women SHG focus. Reactions may be expected from the excluded PDS beneficiaries of rural areas, and the tribals of south Odisha due to recent issues.
However, since BJD conducts local body election through its MlAs and their number of 117 in the Assembly, the party expects its MlAs to win PRI elections to qualify themselves for next MlA ticket in 2019. Besides, the BJD has State sarkari machinery in its favour. But the larger question is not whether BJD will lead the show but whether it would maintain the same percentage of lead like the last time or lose some vote- percentage to Congress and BJP this time.
Though the opposition BJP and Congress did not organise massive meetings at district level like the BJD, they have chosen the protest route to make their presence felt. For the BJP and the Congress, number of seats as well percentage of voting are meaningful. In addition, BJP is aiming at climbing to the second position, improving its performance of 2014 Assembly poll. While BJP is perhaps expecting better result from the west Odisha and the Congress is hoping from South, the Coastal and Central Odisha appears to be still a BJD stronghold.The ClP-PCC conflict might affect the poll prospects of Congress unless it is resolved. BJP has expanded its presence since the last 2012 PRI poll. Much depends on the BJP’s constituency level leadership as it has only 10 MlAs. Funding support to the candidates shall be an area of challenge for both the BJP and the Congress, not only in terms of quantity but also in terms of distribution for proper purpose at booth levels. JMM is unlikely to perform better due to one of its faction merging with BJD in 2014. The challenge for BJP is to occupy Nuapada, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Sundergarh and Deogarh ZPs whereas for Congress it is to occupy Kondhamal, Jharsuguda , Gajapti, Koraput, Malanagiri ZPs. Demonetisation is expected to reduce the poll expenses.