News Analysis India

Tag: UP Panchayat polls

  • Treat or bribe for voters? Two quintal jalebi, 1,050 samosas seized in Unnao ahead of panchayat polls

    By ANI
    UNNAO: Unnao Police seized two quintal jalebi and 1,050 samosas cooked for distribution among voters by a gram panchayat poll candidate in Hasanganj on Saturday.

    “A case has been registered for violation of COVID norms and Model Code of Conduct. 10 people have been arrested,” said the police.

    Acting on information, police raided the residence of a candidate and recovered LPG cylinders, flour, ghee and other things that used for the preparation for jalebi and samosa.

    The Panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh will be held in four phases starting from April 15. The final phase will be on April 29 and the results will be declared on May 2.

  • Mayawati preps for UP Panchayat polls, tasks cadres to expose ‘failures’ of state govt, Centre

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: Ahead of Panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh, BSP chief Mayawati asked her party cadres to reach out to people through small public meetings and expose the “anti-people” policies of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and Yogi Adityanath government in the state.

    Mayawati gave pep talks to her cadres while reviewing the party’s preparedness, in Lucknow on Wednesday. She made it clear to her cadres that she would continue with the review meetings from now onwards.

    She also issued the directives to cadres to rope in as many people as possible through membership drive across the state before the panchayat polls which are likely to take place in April-May.

    The BSP said it will contest the panchayat elections as a semi-final to 2022 UP Assembly polls.

    Mayawati’s move comes following defections of important party leaders to the Samajwadi Party in the recent past.

    Those who quit the BSP to join the SP are former BSP state president Dayaram Pal, ex-Ballia district chief Mithailal Bharati, and former minister Kamlakant Gautam. Besides, BSP leader and Meerut mayor Sunita Verma, her husband, and former BSP MLA from Hastinapur Yogesh Verma also joined the SP recently.

    In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BSP had failed to open its account. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, she had entered into the grand alliance with Samajwadi Party winning 10 seats. Later, Mayawati accused the SP of failing to transfer its vote to BSP candidates and called off the alliance leading to the resumption of bitterness between the two regional forces. 

  • UP panchayat polls: End of Mulayam clan’s reign in Samajwadi Party bastion Saifai

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: For the first time in the last 50 years, a Dalit will be elected in the upcoming three-tier panchayat elections to helm the Saifai gram sabha in Etawah district, an undisputed stronghold of the first family of Samajwadi Party — the Mulayam Singh Yadav clan. The panchayat elections in the state are likely to be notified after March 20.

    The Saifai blockhead post has also been reserved for a scheduled caste woman for the first time in the last 25 years after the UP administration revised and released the fresh reservation list of seats for rural body polls scheduled to be held in April-May.

    Notably, Mulayam’s family has been occupying the posts of Saifai gram sabha for 50 years and blockhead post for the last 25 years.

    Now after both seats being reserved for the S/C women, the Yadavs are looking for a candidate of their trust.Of the total 24 zila panchayat (district panchayat) seats in Etawah, 16 have been reserved. 

    Of 471 posts of gram pradhans, 40 posts will be reserved for S/C women, 46 for OBC women and 85 posts for OBCs. Of the 8 posts of block chief, two will be reserved for S/C, two for OBC.

    Darshan Singh Yadav, a close confidant of Mulayam and his son and party chief Akhilesh Yadav had represented Saifai as village head (pradhan) for 48 years.

    He died last year in a Lucknow hospital following a prolonged illness. Saifai was accorded the status of the block in 1995 when Mulayam Singh Yadav was UP CM.

    Since then this seat has been occupied either by an OBC or a general category candidate. Yadav falls in the OBC category.

  • Uttar Pradesh releases reservation policy for upcoming panchayat polls

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday released the reservation policy for the upcoming three-tier panchayat polls in the state.

    Reservation by rotation will be implemented in the panchayat elections, Additional Chief Secretary, Panchayati Raj, Manoj Kumar Singh said.

    The reservation system in place for the elections from 1995 to 2015 will be taken into account in the new policy, he said.

    The order of Scheduled Castes (SC), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and women in the previous election will be taken into account in the reservation policy, the ACS said adding that preference would be given to seats which have never been reserved till now.

    Last week, the Allahabad High Court asked the State Election Commission in Uttar Pradesh to ensure the rural civic body elections are held by April 30, rejecting the poll panel’s undertaking to hold the polls by May.

    At present, the state has 826 vikas khands (development blocks), and 58,194 gram sabhas.

    There are 7,31,813 wards in the gram sabhas, and 75,855 wards in kshetra panchayats and 30,051 wards in 75 zila panchayats.

  • AAP MLA Somnath Bharti arrested for derogatory remarks on condition of UP hospitals 

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: Aam Admi Party (AAP) MLA Somnath Bharti was arrested in Amethi on Monday for his alleged derogatory statement about the condition of hospitals in Uttar Pradesh. The arrest was made under Section 151 of the CrPC.

    Earlier in the day, ink was thrown at the AAP MLA by a youth while he was talking to police personnel over his visit to Rae Bareli district.

    Following the incident, Bharti got into an altercation with cops over his visit to Amethi. He was detained at a guest house. Meanwhile, the youth who threw ink on Bharti fled the spot.

    Bharti has been on a visit to Amethi and Rae Bareli. The incident occurred when he was trying to visit a school in Rae Bareli. 

    He had previously made a controversial comment regarding the condition of hospitals in the state. The AAP leader had reached Rae Bareli on Sunday night to inspect some government schools.

    Later talking to media persons, Bharti called it the “handiwork of BJP workers” while raising questions over the law and order situation in UP.

    On getting the information about the incident, CO Anjani Kumar Chaturvedi reached the spot. The MLA allegedly told the CO that the right-wing workers tryingto intimidate and that ink was thrown at him in the presence of cops.

    Bharti claimed that he was in Rae Bareli to oversee party’s preparations for the upcoming panchayat polls.

    AAP MP Sanjay Singh, meanwhile, said that the dictatorship in Uttar Pradesh was reaching a crescendo and efforts were being made to browbeat AAP leaders who raise questions on the poor conditions of health and education facilities in the state.

  • For BJP, UP panchayat elections a dry run for 2022 Assembly polls

    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.