Reputation of the political parties are at stake in the ensuing three tier Panchayat elections, but the State election commission would not allot symbols of any recognised political parties to the candidates. The State election commission’s guideline clearly states that since the Panchayat elections are not fought on political party lines, the commission would not assign the symbols of parties to the candidates.
The three-tier Panchayat elections would be held in the State in the month of March and the State election commission would soon issue notification for them. A total of 4,691,003 voters would exercise their franchise in the Panchayat elections out which 2,313,900 are females and 2,377,103 are male voters.
These voters would vote to elect 7,666 Village Pradhans, 49,444 Gram Panchayat members. They will also vote to elect 3,065 Block Panchayat members and 391 District Panchayat members. The elected Block Panchayat members would then elect 89 Block Pramukhs, 89 Senior Deputy Block Pramukhs, and 89 Junior Deputy Block Pramukhs. The District Panchayat members would elect 12 president District Panchayat and 12 vice president District Panchayats.
Though the Panchayat elections would be ‘apolitical’, the political parties would be very active to get their workers elected in the key positions of the three-tier Panchayati Raj system. The importance of these elections can be gauged from the fact that the New Chief Minister Harish Rawat sought extra time from the court and prevented the election commission to issue notification on scheduled date of February 11.
The State Government was able to defer the notification of the elections and the model code of conduct for 10 days albeit in the name of disaster relief and got the crucial time to go for various populist measures which it hope will help it in the ensuing Panchayat elections.
The State BJP, too, is putting its weight behind these elections as a good performance would boost its chances of doing well in the Parliamentary elections which most probably will be held in the month of May.