Tag: zila parishad

When 40% Seats Are Won Uncontested by the Dominant Party, It’s Time to Ask Questions

Violence, intimidation and unfair practices have played an important role and should be investigated.

Much concern has already been expressed at the excessive violence and intimidation witnessed in the recent block pramukh elections (which function as rural decentralisation institutions) of Uttar Pradesh held on July 10.

However, attention also needs to be drawn to the curious fact that even before voting took place, Bharatiya Janata Party-backed candidates had already been declared elected unopposed on 334 seats out of the total 825 block pramukh seats in the state. In other words, even before a single vote was polled on July 10, as many as 40% of the total number of seats were safely in the control of BJP supported candidates. 

Why did such a large number of seats remain uncontested in a state of such high levels of  politicisation and such intense political rivalries, with many parties in the running to gain a dominant or important position in this politically most influential state of India which will also be holding crucial assembly elections early next year? And why would as many as 334 out of 349 uncontested seats  have BJP supported candidates as uncontested winners?

Here it may be pointed out that no direct voting by people takes place for block pramukhs. They are instead elected indirectly by a relatively small number of block council members who have already been elected by people.

Also read: UP: BJP Claims Victory, Opposition Parties Allege Massive Rigging in ZP Chairperson Polls

Theoretically, of course, a possibility exists that the BJP supported candidates in all these 334 seats were such great paragons of virtue and enjoyed such great respect that no one, not even those members firmly allied to opposition parties, wanted to oppose them. But at a practical level everyone knows that this is not the reality and so we must look at other factors to explain why BJP supported candidates won 40% of seats without a contestant appearing on the scene.  

Several news reports and videos have appeared describing and depicting how when filing of nominations was taking place (quite a hurried process this time) there were many cases of intimidation and harassment of potential contestants. There were cases of nomination papers being snatched or torn. There were beatings and firings. Opposition party spokespersons issues several statements criticising the violence and intimidation.

Samajwadi Party supporters protest during the voting of District Panchayat President elections, in Prayagraj, Saturday, July 3, 2021. Photo: PTI

As many as 68 nominations were rejected. What is more, as many as 187 candidates took back their nominations.

In the entire hurried and tension-ridden process, if only a little while back these persons had ventured to file their nomination papers then why did they take their name back and withdraw from contest so soon? Why did they change their mind in so short a time?

Ultimately the result was that the BJP-supported candidates were declared elected unopposed from 334 seats. A total of 349 seats had uncontested results, and among these as many as 334 had BJP supported candidates as the beneficiaries of the lack of contest. We do not have the details of the remaining 15 seats – whether these involved allies or opponents of the BJP, or independents.

So the most likely explanation is that nearly 40% of the seats were won largely on the basis of creating such scary conditions that those who wanted to contest did not dare to contest, or else were offered money to withdraw from contest. In some exceptional cases there may have been some other factors responsible for the seat remaining uncontested, but such cases are likely to be only a few in number.

A few days earlier in the district panchayat president election too nearly 28% seats (21 out of 75) had been obtained uncontested by BJP supported candidates with similar factors at play. Before these elections were held the Bahujan Samaj Party had declared that it will not be contesting as unfair practices were anticipated by it.

Also read: UP: Why BJP Publicising Zila Panchayat Chief Poll Victory as Public Mandate Is Deceptive

Finally the last day of the three-month panchayati raj elections came on July 10 when voting was held for the block pramukh posts. In the middle of very shocking scenes of violence and intimidation the BJP won 301 more seats, taking its total seats to around 635. This was soon publicised as a major victory.

However, 334 out of these 635 or so seats, or about 53%, were obtained uncontested. Whether in the uncontested seats or contested seats, in several cases, violence, intimidation and unfair practices have played an important role and this should be investigated properly.

However the fact that the prime minister was quick to offer his congratulations for this supposed great victory of the BJP would indicate that no such investigation is deemed to be necessary by the government. Hence it will be proper if independent experts on rural decentralisation get together to investigate all aspects of the recent panchayati raj elections in Uttar Pradesh and prepare a comprehensive report on all aspects of these elections at the three tiers of Panchayati Raj – village, block and district – with special emphasis on block pramukh elections.

As assembly elections are due in Uttar Pradesh within a few months, the growing trend of violence and intimidation seen recently in these elections in a very important state is deeply worrying. Democracy is safe only when its protectors are alert, active and courageous. 

Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Save the Earth Now Campaign. His recent books include Man Over Machine (Gandhian Ideas for Our Times) and When Two Streams Met (Freedom Movement of India).

UP: BJP Claims Victory, Opposition Parties Allege Massive Rigging in ZP Chairperson Polls

From intimidation of voters to rejection of papers over non-existent rules, here are the allegations that surround BJP’s ‘victory’ in the indirect polls.

New Delhi: The three-tier panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh ended with the Zila Panchayat chairperson elections held on July 3. In this election, members of the Zila Panchayats vote to elect chairpersons for all 75 districts in the state, one per district.

The BJP won 65 chairpersons’ posts and its ally Apna Dal, won two.

The Samajwadi Party won only five, while the other three seats were bagged by a Lok Dal candidate, a Jansatta Dal candidate and one remaining seat was won by an independent candidate. The BSP was not in the fray after party chief Mayawati decided to stay away from this election. Congress won no seats.

Chairpersons of 22 Zila Panchayats out of the total 75 were on Tuesday declared “elected unopposed” with the BJP claiming victory in 21 seats, and Samajwadi Party bagging the one remaining seat in Etawah district. 

BJP’s claims

The election for over 8.69 lakh posts, including the 3,050 Zila Panchayat member seats, was held in four phases in April this year. These polls are not held on party lines but candidates have political affiliations and are decided by the respective parties. While independent candidates won the maximum seats, Samajwadi Party along with Rashtriya Lok Dal came second and BJP, third. BJP also lost in key citadels like Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi. 

Also read: UP Panchayat Polls Give BJP Yet Another Jolt, But Party Proclaims Victory Anyway

Out of the 3,050 district panchayat ward members who were elected, more than 1,000 were independent candidates or members of smaller parties. More than 700 seats were bagged by the Samajwadi Party and more than 500 by the BJP.

However, BJP claimed the most number of seats saying that independent candidates were supported by the BJP. The district panchayat members declared between May 2 and May 5, voted in this indirect election to elect district heads. 

However, it is surprising how despite bagging fewer seats than SP in the Panchayat polls held in April, the BJP managed to get most seats in the chairpersons elections – which is an indirect election i.e. members are not directly voted by the public.

Police personnel lathi-charge on Samajwadi Party workers as they protest against declaring BJP candidate DR.VK Singh win in District Panchayat President election, in Prayagraj, Saturday, July 03, 2021. Photo: PTI

‘Massive victory’

A few weeks before the Zila Panchayat president polls, the Samajwadi Party had said that it was ready to give BJP a tough fight and win at least 50 of the 75 seats. These elections are significant because they are being held just eight months before the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2022. 

After the BJP’s win in the chairperson elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP member and badminton star Saina Nehwal congratulated Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath for the victory. 

However, opposition leaders allege corruption, threats, money, attacks on property of candidates and forced withdrawals lie behind this ‘victory’.

Viral video

On the day of the polls, July 3, a video of Auraiya’s District Magistrate Sunil Kumar Verma tweeted by the official handle of Samajwadi Party went viral on social media. In the video, he can be heard talking about shutting down a camera just before the chairperson election, making an SP candidate lose. 

Demanding strict action against the DM, the party’s official statement said, “In a shameful incident, Auraiya District Magistrate accepted manipulations in the elections in front of the camera. He said that he will switch off the camera and will defeat the SP candidate forcefully. Election commission should take cognizance of this. Murder of democracy should be stopped and elections should be free and fair.”

‘Intimidation with state machinery’

Roughly 15 days before the polls, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said that the ruling BJP is using “state machinery” to “intimidate” panchayat members to force them to vote for its candidates. The party had also complained to the state police chief, but to “no avail,” as per members.

In a statement issued by the party, Yadav further stated that the BJP, upset over its defeat in the panchayat elections, was distraught. “Not having the numbers, the distraught BJP leadership is misusing the government machinery to ensure that their party nominees win…” he said. Further, he said that such repressive policies were a gross misuse of power, putting democracy in danger.

Akhilesh Yadav. Photo: PTI

Yadav alleged that elected Zila Panchayat members of the Samajwadi Party in Auraiya, Mainpuri, Firozabad, Etah, Hapur, Siddharthnagar, Rampur, Gorakhpur and Farrukhabad were being harassed by the BJP to vote in its favour. He said even family members of panchayat members were not spared, and were harassed in different ways using government machinery.

Rajendra Chaudhary, Samajwadi Party spokesperson, claimed that party workers were beaten with lathis in several districts like Lucknow, Prayagraj, Pratapgarh and Kaushambi while they were protesting against the “favours” allegedly extended to the BJP on the day of the elections. 

In a statement, Akhilesh Yadav chief said: “By throwing all democratic ethics and norms to the wind and turning the elections into a joke, the BJP converted its defeat in the panchayat elections into a victory in Zila Panchayat chiefs’ elections. The BJP held the voters (Zila Panchayat members) hostage, lured and intimidated them. And when SP leaders protested against the malpractices, the administration misbehaved with them.”

Rejected papers

On July 5, BJP member Poonam Maurya, who had won the chairperson election unopposed from Varanasi district, was challenged by Samajwadi Party’s Chanda Yadav in a district court. Chanda Yadav had alleged that his nomination papers were rejected by the district election officer on the ground of “non-renewal of authorisation” of the notary lawyer who issued her affidavit. 

Abhay Nath Yadav, the SP candidate’s lawyer, said that there is no such rule in place for the Uttar Pradesh Zila Panchayat elections. In fact, rule 10(4) of UP Zila Panchayat Act states that no nomination can be rejected on the basis of technical errors, he added.

District judge Om Prakash Tripathi served a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government, district magistrate/district election officer and BJP’s Poonam Maurya, and fixed the next date of hearing for August 6. 

‘Forced to join BJP’

In Baghpat, a week before the election, RLD’s Mamta Kishore had made headlines by joining the BJP, and then returning to the RLD the same day. She won the Baghpat Zila Panchayat chairperson’s post on Saturday. Jay Kishore, Mamta Kishore’s husband while speaking to The Wire alleged that the local administration had forced him and his wife to join the BJP. 

The day that Kishore filed her nomination papers, her husband in a press conference alleged that the couple was threatened with “fake legal action” by some people and asked to join the BJP if they wanted to avoid it.

Also read: How UP Panchayat Polls, Held Without COVID Protocols, Proved Fatal for Over 1,500 Teachers

Voters ‘intimidated’

In Muzaffarnagar, voters were intimidated and forced to remain inside their houses, said RLD’s Sateyndra Balyan, who lost the Muzaffarnagar seat to BJP-backed candidate Veerpal Nirwal. Sateyndra is Union minister and local BJP MP Sanjeev Balyan’s cousin.

He told The Wire that at least nine Zila Panchayat members abstained from voting.

“While some Panchayat members were scared so much that they decided to stay inside their houses on the polling day, the remaining were forced to vote in favour of Veerpal Nirwal,” he said, adding that a complaint will soon be lodged in connection with this with the State Election Commission. 

Samajwadi Party supporters during the voting of District Panchayat President elections, in Prayagraj, Saturday, July 3, 2021. Photo: PTI

‘Prevented’ from filing papers

On Saturday, the Samajwadi Party sacked 11 of its district unit presidents after many of the party’s nominees did not turn up to file their nomination papers. The districts were Gorakhpur, Moradabad, Jhansi, Agra, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Mau, Balrampur, Shravasti, Bhadohi, Gonda and Lalitpur.

While the party did not clearly state the reason for this unprecedented move, sources said that it was done because these members had not filed their nomination papers.

Akhilesh Yadav, in a tweet, alleged that many of his party’s nominees were “prevented” from filing their nomination papers. “The way in which the BJP government has prevented the Samajwadi Party candidates from filing nominations for the election of panchayat chairperson in Gorakhpur and elsewhere, it is a new administrative tactic of the defeated BJP to win the election. The people will not even give as many seats in the Assembly to the BJP as they will make panchayat chiefs,” he said in a tweet.

SP member ‘beaten up’

A week before the election, when Samajwadi Party candidate Jitendra Yadav reached the office to file his nomination papers, scores of people calling themselves supporters of BJP candidate Sadhna Singh, MLA Fateh Bahadur Singh’s wife, beat him up at Collectorate gate, he said.

“I was not allowed to file my nomination papers,” he had told the media. 

Police, admin ‘action’ on Congress member’s house

Just three days before the polls, on June 29, a team of police along with the SDM reached Congress’s Badaun Zila Panchayat member Ishwarwati’s house to tear it down. A crowd gathered around the house and Congress district president Omkar Singh too reached the spot. Police withdrew but gave her a “warning” that her house was constructed on Gram Panchayat land. 

While speaking to The Wire, she said that her house is in the middle of the village, along with other houses and that it was an attempt to “threaten” her. Omkar Singh too said that police were acting under “political influence.”

“If her house was illegal, why was no notice served to her before police directly arrived to tear it down? She was being threatened this way so she votes in favour of the BJP on polling day,” he said.

Rajasthan: Congress and BJP Join Hands to Scuttle the Rise of Bharatiya Tribal Party

In a recent election to the post of the zila pramukh, the Congress thwarted the election of the BTP candidate and instead extended support to the BJP candidate.

Jaipur: The recent Panchayat and Zila Parishad polls in Rajasthan have laid bare the desperation with which the Congress and the BJP have tried to thwart tribal movement in the state.

The two national rival parties have extended support to each other to ensure that the Bharatiya Tribal Party’s (BTP) candidate is not elected as the zila pramukh (chairperson for this Zila Parishad) in Rajasthan’s tribal belt of Dungarpur.

In the elections to the 27-seat Dungarpur Zila Parishad held earlier this month, the BTP candidate Parwati Doda secured 13 votes, while the Congress and the BJP obtained six and eight votes respectively. Doda was short of just one vote from the halfway mark (14 in this case) needed to be elected as the zila pramukh.

The zila pramukh is chosen amongst the elected members of the Zila Parishad. Each elected member has to nominate a name and the candidate who secures the largest number of nominations becomes the zila pramukh.

When it came to the selection of the zila pramukh, the BTP expected the Congress party, whom it had supported during the Rajya Sabha polls and the political showdown between chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot this year, to extend support to it with just one vote to its candidate. However, the Congress, with its six votes, joined hands with the BJP and paved the way for BJP candidate Surya Ahari to be elected as the zila pramukh, with 14 nominations.

This incident has made clear that both the Congress and the BJP are wary of the BTP’s increasing popularity in Dungarpur.

The condition of both the national parties in this tribal area can be inferred from the fact that the BTP, which is still not a “recognised” party as per the standards set by the Election Commission of India, has compelled the two arch-rivals to come together to save face.

Also read: Ground Report: How the Bharatiya Tribal Party Is Making Its Mark in Rajasthan

The Congress and the BJP are also dreading the BTP’s aim to expand its support in the nearby tribal areas of Banswara, Pratapgarh and Udaipur.

In Southern Rajasthan, where the Bhil tribe holds a decisive vote share, the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) led by the Bhils has been gaining prominence. In its maiden electoral contest in 2018, the party effortlessly won two of the four Scheduled Tribes (ST) reserved seats – Chorasi and Sagwara – in the tribal belt of Dungarpur, while the Congress and the BJP won the remaining seats. At the third seat in Dungarpur, namely Aspur, the difference between the votes secured by the BTP candidate Umesh and BJP’s winning candidate was merely 5,330.

In the 2013 assembly elections, the BJP had won all the four seats of Dungarpur and in the 2008 polls, the Congress had secured these four seats. This is the primary reason why the Congress and the BJP are not able to come to grips with the advances made by the party led by the Bhil tribe.

BTP has been striving to protect the interests and rights of the tribal population in Dungarpur. The mandate has gone down well with the tribal youth, who are further persuading elders to back the party.

The BTP is focused on delivering on its 17-point agenda dealing with various rights and interests of tribals that have been neglected by successive state governments led by the Congress and the BJP over decades.

“We are aiming to ensure the basic rights of the tribals which include access to drinking water, government jobs, right over forest land and implementation of Schedule five of the Constitution,” Kanti Bhai Roat, a BTP member in Dungarpur, told The Wire.

Chandulal Baranda from Dungarpur said that the tribals didn’t have access to drinking water until the BTP made its way into the state assembly.

“We could not carry out agricultural activities because the irrigation facility was given to only the rich, upper-caste farmers and to the city,” said Baranda.

In its election manifesto, the BTP promised that the Mahi-Galiakot and Kadana-Genji pipeline projects would be implemented to provide water from the Mahi and Kandana dams to the Galiakot and Genji villages of Dungarpur respectively.

Also read: Rajasthan: BJP Leads in Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad Elections

In September this year, the tribals in Dungarpur also staged protests demanding the recruitment of reserved category candidates to the 1,167 vacant unreserved positions for teachers from 2018, which is one of the 17 demands of the BTP listed in its manifesto.

Relations between the Congress and the BTP strained after a Congress MLA from Bagidora in Rajasthan’s Banswara Mahendra Jeet Malviya levelled serious allegations against the two BTP MLAs last month. He claimed that each of them took Rs 5 crore from the Congress to extend their support to the party for the Rajya Sabha polls and during the floor test necessitated due to the infighting between Gehlot and Pilot.

Already upset over such allegations, the outright denial of the post of the zila pramukh in Dungarpur has further infuriated BTP. It has now declared that it will withdraw its support for the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan.

“BTP always extended support to both the Congress and the BJP but they don’t reciprocate. We have been raising the issues that are central to the tribals which is why we are getting massive support,” BTP’s national president Maheshbhai Vasava told The Wire.

The Congress workers in Dungarpur say that the party’s move to support the BJP has severely damaged its reputation in the region.

“In the remote areas, it’s very crucial to maintain the trust of the public. Now, how do we assure the tribals that the Congress supports their interests?” a Congress party worker in Dungarpur said, on the condition of anonymity.

The Congress has not offered any explanation for supporting the BJP instead of BTP. However, the BTP has said that the Congress was hand in glove with the BJP. “The BJP-Congress ‘coalition’ was hidden for so many years. BTP may not have been able to make its Chairperson even after winning, but it has certainly exposed that the BJP and the Congress are the same,” BTP founder Chhotubhai Vasava tweeted on Friday.

From Restoring Right to Contest, to Education, Rajasthan Congress Reverses BJP Decisions

Key decisions include reopening of universities, elimination of educational qualification for Panchayati Raj elections and removal of Deendayal Upadhyay logo from official documents.

Jaipur: The newly formed Congress government in Rajasthan has decided to restore right to contest, improve benefits under social security schemes and review change in textbooks that were made during previous BJP government. In the first cabinet meeting held on Saturday, chief minister Ashok Gehlot reversed the key decisions taken by the previous Vasundhara Raje government in the state. While handing over the party’s manifesto to the chief secretary, the cabinet unanimously decided that it would be the policy document of the state government and a cabinet committee would be constituted to ensure its effective implementation.

The key takeaways of the meeting included reopening of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Law University and Haridev Joshi University of Journalism and Mass Communication that were closed by the Raje government, elimination of the provision of minimum educational qualification in the Panchayati Raj elections, and removal of Deendayal Upadhyay logo from official documents.

To effectively execute its loan waiver announcement, the Gehlot government decided to constitute an inter-departmental committee to waive the short-term crop loan. The chief minister has been authorised to nominate members in the said committee that will set the eligibility criteria for the waiver in cooperative banks, nationalised banks, and regional rural and land development banks.

Putting an emphasis on the social security schemes, the government announced increment in the pension received by old-age, widow and disabled persons under its old-age pension scheme. The Congress, while in opposition, had called out the Raje-led BJP government for halting the pension of eligible beneficiaries.

“For the past five years, the Raje government didn’t increase the pension that was previously set by our government. Keeping in mind the present scenario, we have increased the pension from Rs 500 to Rs 750 for men and women above 55 years of age and from Rs 750 to Rs 1000 for the pensioners in the age bracket of 75 years and above,” Master Bhawarlal Meghwal, minister of social justice and empowerment in the Rajasthan government, told The Wire.

The state council also decided to constitute a committee for resolving the issues of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) workers, para-teachers, Urdu para-teachers, anganwadi workers, education workers, panchayat assistants and a few others working on a contractual basis in state. During Raje’s tenure earlier this year, several NRHM who showed black flags to PM Narendra Modi demanding permanent employment were arrested for ‘sloganeering’ and ‘obstructing police personnel in discharging their duties’.

The government also decided to abolish the criteria set by the previous BJP government for the educational qualification of candidates for panchayati raj and local body elections to ensure each person gets a right to contest elections.

Also read: Factions in Rajasthan Congress Could Hamper Its Prospects in 2019 Polls

The state government under the BJP had brought in an ordinance a few days ahead of panchayat polls in 2014 making it mandatory for candidates contesting zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls to be Class X pass and those contesting sarpanch elections to be class VIII pass. In the scheduled areas, the criteria was class V pass. It later led to an amendment to the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994.

Civil society members who have been consistently fighting to restore the right to contest have welcomed the step. “The law was discriminatory and elitist. It was maliciously brought in Rajasthan to break the Congress control over the panchayats. After its implementation, 65% of the elected representatives were under 35 and it completely ruled out the older people and tribals who had no adequate means for education. The law was basically brought in to woo the youth, the only base of the Bhartiya Janta Party in rural areas,” Kavita Srivastava, Rajasthan president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, told The Wire.

The Congress government has also ordered removal of a logo featuring an image of RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay from the letterheads of the ministers for all official correspondence. The Raje government had made using the logo mandatory as part of Upadhyay’s birth centenary celebrations last year. “Who was Deendayal Upadhyay, president or prime minister? When the logo of top leaders couldn’t be used on official letters, how come his be allowed?” Meghwal added.

Other decisions of the cabinet include direct elections for the mayor, chairman and the president of local bodies, public hearing by the state ministers from 9-10 am to ensure transparency and accountability and completion of the ambitious project of Barmer refinery in a fast and timely manner. The government has also asked to prepare a quick action plan to prioritise effective implementation of MNREGA in the state.

Significantly, the minister for state (independent charge) for education, Govind Singh Dotasara has announced that his department will review changes in the textbook content made by the previous BJP government. “The textbooks were changed to promote RSS ideology. We have ordered to form a separate committee of educationists to review the distortion of history in the textbooks and other regressive content,” Dotasara told The Wire.

For other changes made in the education sector like colour of the uniforms and saffron bicycles distributed to the students, he said, “We have issued official notes to rectify changes made in the colour of the uniform and bicycles for students by the Raje government.”

Noticeably, under the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government, class X and XII textbooks of the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education were revised to glorify the Modi government and propagate the Bhartiya Janta Party’s Hindutva ideology. History was rewritten to sideline Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi and focus on Savarkar. The role of the Congress in the freedom struggle was also shown in poor light, claiming “elite Congressmen wanted to prolong British rule in India”. Years ago, the state education department had eliminated the suffix ‘Great’ from Akbar’s name. The Rajasthan University had also added a book projecting Maharana Pratap as a winner of the Battle of Haldighati in the list of recommended readings for the history subject.