A total of 237 candidates have been elected unopposed as ward members in the first phase of the panchayat polls in Palamu. Voting for the first phase is due on November 22 and these 237 ward members bask in victory.
Their getting elected unopposed has given mixed opinions. A section believes that these 237 people are the ones who used muscle power to get themselves elected unchallenged. The other version is that extremists got these 237 elected. Interestingly, there are as many versions as there are mouths.
However Palamu district panchayati raj officer Shanti Kumar Pandey said that in the first phase of the panchayat polls 1,680 nominations for ward members were filed for 807 seats. Five went blank as candidatures were found unfit to contest, he said and 237 got elected thereafter.
A huge 1,389 candidates are still in poll fray. Pandey said these are the ones who are contesting hard for the seat.
He rubbished the version of pressure behind getting cancandidates elected unopposed. Pandey countered, “Have you seen any one getting elected unopposed in mukhiya category or in zila parishad categoryIJ”
He himself answered with the figure saying that there is none elected unopposed for mukhiya and zila parishad. In the first phase, 66 posts of mukhiya and 9 posts of zila parishad are at stake and there is no election unopposed.
Sources said that there is no official word of any intimidation to candidates to drop out from the poll ring.
A farmer, Anjani Singh also mentioned that the gathering at the time of nomination belies pressure theory.