Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has issued a warning to the rebel candidates to withdraw nominations in block pramukh’s elections as Samajwadi Party claimed a victory in the polls in which 1667 people filed nomination for the posts of 817 block pramukhs, election of which would be held on Sunday.
Akhilesh Yadav, who is also state president of the party, issued directives to rebel candidates to withdraw in favour of official candidates. “Action would be taken against those who will defy party diktat,” he said in a statement issued here.
Samajwadi party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhry already claimed victory in block pramukh polls as he said that 325 out of 775 candidates it had fielded had been elected unopposed. “No one filed papers against SP candidate in 325 blocks,” Chaudhry said in a statement issued here.
State Election Commission (SEC) spokesman said that candidates could withdraw their nominations on February 6 from 1100 hours to 1500 hours. Polling would be held between 1100 hours to 1500 hours on February 7 and counting of votes to be taken up immediately thereafter, he said. State Election Commissioner SK Agarwal said that the elections of the Block Pramukh of three assembly segments, where bypolls would be held on March 3, will also be held on February 7.
Polling for the block pramukh would be held in 74 districts of the state, except in Allahabad and Chitrakoot districts, where the polling would be held on February 10 because of ongoing religious festivals there. There are 77576 block panchayat members who would vote in the elections. The highest number of block pramukhs would be 22 in Azamgarh district followed by 21 in Jaunpur and 20 in Allahabad while the lowest would be four each in Ghaziabad and Mahoba districts. Azamgarh has maximum number of 2141 voters followed by Jaunpur 2075, Gorakhpur 1815, Hardoi 1806 and Bahraich 1604 voters.
Spokesman said that 1667 candidates have filed nomination of which 25 have been cancelled. Mahoba is the only district where elections will not be held in its four blocks as only four candidates had filed papers, the spokesman.
Meanwhile opposition parties have charged the ruling Samajwadi Party of misusing official machinery to influence the elections. There are also reports of candidates distributing money among voters and in some places people were forcefully not allowed to file papers. Samajwadi Party spokesman has called these allegations as false. In Panchayat elections the party had won 60 out of 75 seats and this trend will be replicated in the block pramukh elections.
“Initial reports say that 325 people have been elected unopposed but the real picture will emerge late at night and this number will go up for sure,” Rajendra Chaudhry said.