With the completion of the elections for the chairman of the district panchyats,the State Election Commission has now geared up to conduct the remaining elections for the block pramukhs in next one month time.
The Commission is set to approach the Panchayatraj department next week with a proposal for holding the block pramukh elections in 819 blocks of 74 districts in the state. The elections are conducted by the Commission while powers to issue the notification for the same are vested with the state government.
State Election Commissioner S K Agarwal said here on Saturday that now the commission will start the process for the block pramukh elections very soon.
The elections for the block pramukh would be held after the poll notification is issued by the state government. The elections are expected to be held in February with notification to be issued later this month.
“We have enough time for holding the elections of the block pramukh as the term of the incumbent pramukhs is ending on March 17’’, said the Joint State election commissioner J P Singh. He added that the newly elected district panchayat chairmen of 74 districts would take oath of their post after January 13 when the term of the present chairmen ends. Commission has conduct all the elections of the three-tier panchayats in the state since October last and now only the elections of block pramukh remains to be conducted.
The electoral college for the election of the 819 block pramukhs has been completed with the election hen 77,534 newly elected members of the block development committee (BDC) Only the BDC members are eligible to vote in the election of Block pramukh.
Earlier amid sporadic incidents of violence, the Commission successfully completed the elections of the village pradhans and village council and other posts of the panchayats in the state, which was the largest rural poll exercise of the world. Over 11 crore voters were eligible to exercise their franchise votes in the panchayat elections and around 70 per cent of them had participated.
Meanwhile the ruling Samajwadi Party is bracing for yet another round battle and factional fight within the party for the election of block pramukh. The party faces an uphill task in maintaining the discipline and making the elected members of the block development committee to vote for the official candidate.
The SP leadership had singularly failed in enforcing discipline during the elections of the chairman of the district panchyats as its own MlAs and ministers were at daggers drawn position on over a dozen district Despite the best efforts of the party including cracking the whip three rebel candidates in Sitapur, Unnao and Bijnor won the election defeating the official party candidate. Out of total 74 seats of chairman of district panchyat, the SP won 60 seats out of 36 were elected unopposed.
A senior Samajwadi Party leader said the party would continue to enforce the policy to prevent the members of one family in the district occupying all important political offices in the district. Most of the party MlAs and ministers came to blows in district panchyat elections as they wanted somebody from their family to be elected as chairman of the district panchyat so they hold complete over the politics of the districts.
SP sources said in block development committee too large number of the relatives and family members of the party MlAs and other leaders have been elected and they are likely to pose problem for the party in maintaining discipline.