Express News Service
LUCKNOW: The ruling BJP’s Panchayat poll overdrive in UP is apparently being taken as the rehearsal for Mission 2022 in the political circles in the state. The rural local body polls are likely to take place in March-April.
The term of around 59,000 panchayats in the state ended on December 25 and the government-appointed Assistant Development Officers as the administrators in all the panchayats removing the digital signatures of the pradhans from the portal of e-gram swaraj to prevent any fraud.
As per the political observers, the BJP is preparing the ground for 2022 by using the rural polls as a ‘test’.
The BJP has stepped up efforts to oil its organisational machinery and activate the grassroots to make the cadre battle-ready for 2022, says Prof Ashutosh Mishra, a political scientist.
The panchayat polls (for the post of pradhans) and elections for Zilla panchayat and kshetra panchayat members will be held simultaneously. The pradhans are not elected on party symbols. It is only the Zilla panchayat and kshetra panchayat polls for which political parties officially field candidates.
The panchayat polls will be followed by indirect elections to the post of Zilla panchayat and kshetra panchayat chairpersons.
“The party is taking the rural body polls as the dry run for 2022. The party is concertedly engaged in making inroads into rural areas by building the party organisation up to the booth level. Simultaneously, it is also engaging with district-level party workers. The sessions to sensitize the district levelworkers for panchayat polls are already underway since January 7 and will continue till January 17.
“While the party’s UP in-charge Radha Mohan Singh has been touring the state to meet the lowest rung workers of the state. He was on a visit to eastern UP, especially Jaunpur, to meet the party workers on Monday. Singh has already had several rounds of meetings before chalking out a detailed programme and assigning duties to leaders,” said a senior BJP leader.
On Sunday, Singh was in Chandauli adjoining Varanasi while state BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh visited Ayodhya and held day-long deliberations to give final shape to preparations for the panchayat polls.
The BJP has also announced that it would contest only Zilla panchayat elections (members as well as chairpersons). “BJP basically is a party of urbanites. Actually, It faces a stiff challenge from SP and BSP in rural areas. So its current outreach is aimed at creating a hype about panchayat polls among the party workers till village level to make it’s base strong in rural areas and reap its benefits in 2022,” says Prof Mishra.
“New BJP has a different working style. The party keeps the workers always on their toes. Earlier, booth-level seminars were held followed by Kisan panchayats and now district-level meetings for panchayat polls are going on. The next assignment for the cadre would be ready by the time district level parleys are over,” said a senior BJP leader.
“BJP is a party which always remains in poll mode and gives equal importance to all elections. We strive hard to give our best in all. So the upcoming panchayat polls are the immediate goal for us and we are focusing on them,” says Dr. Chandra Mohan, a senior BJP leader.