The aspirants for the coveted positions of President District Panchayat and Block Pramukh in Panchayati Raj system are engaging in hectic parleys to secure the support of enough number of Electoral College in their favour.
To ensure the support of Member District Panchayat and Member Block Panchayat who form the Electoral College for the position of President District Panchayat and Block Pramukh respectively the power of money is being used blatantly by the aspirants.
There are 89 positions of Block Pramukhs and 12 positions of Member District Panchayat — in the 12 districts of state that went to the Panchayat polls — which would be elected indirectly now. Apart from them the positions of Deputy Pradhan, Junior Deputy Pramukh, Senior Deputy Pramukh and Vice President District Panchayat would also be elected. The newly elected 3054 Member Block Panchayat would elect 89 Block Pramukhs in their respective blocks while 389 member district Panchayat would elect the 12 President District Panchayat in their districts.
The District President of Dehradun for example would be elected by 43 Members of District Panchayat while the President District Panchayat of Pauri Garhwal would be elected by 42 Members of district Panchayat.
The State Election Commission (SEC) has proposed to the state government that elections for these positions could be held before August 5. This leaves a period of more than one month for the aspirants of the positions of Block Pramukh and President District Panchayat to woo the Electoral College in their favour.
One of the newly elected Member Block Panchayat from Pauri Garhwal district told this correspondent that money is openly being offered to the newly elected members.
The huge amount of money which is being invested in these polls makes sense as these positions are very powerful in the Panchayati
Raj system.
Many members of the Electoral College have been virtually high jacked and are kept in some remote resort or hotel in confinement.
The confinements however are replete with all comforts. The aspirants are doing this to avoid poaching by the rivals.
The aspirants could be spending a fortune in the Panchayat elections but they would also ensure that the statement of expenditure which they are required to submit would be within the limits prescribed by the SEC.
The election commission has set up a limit of Rs7500 for Deputy Pradhan, Rs25,000 for Junior Deputy Pramukh, Rs30,000 for Senior Deputy Pramukh, Rs70000 for Block Pramukh, Rs12,5000 for Vice President District Panchayat and Rs17,5000 for President District Panchayat.