Panchayat polls in Punjab on Wednesday to be virtually all Akali affair
Tuesday, 02/07/2013
http://www.punjabnewsline.com/news/panchayat-polls-in-punjab-on-wednesday-to-be-virtually-all-akali-affair/82001
CHANDIGARH: The people in the Punjab countryside would elect their representatives for 13,080 on Wednesday which in a way would be an interesting phenomenon with Akalis pitted against the Akalis in a number of villages.
It has been a festival scene in the villages for the last several days with the candidates wooing the voters with not just only liquor, but also soft drinks and fruits, especially for the women voters. There is no gender discrimination this time in Punjab villages where gender ratio is otherwise highly skewed so far as distributing the goodies is concerned.
The Congress has either deliberately stayed away in many villages or the ruling party has manipulated the rejection of nomination papers of the opposition candidates on flimsy grounds with little relief being provided by the state election commission.
This has led to groupism among the Akalis at the village level which could have far reaching effect at the political level in case the leadership later fails to take the remedial steps. Such a situation could play a crucial role in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections for which state party chief Partap Singh Bajwa is trying to gear up the cadre having got demoralized after successive defeats since 2007 Assembly election.
Apart from the political power at the local level, the lavish grants from the state government have made the panchayats all the more important. For getting grants, the panchayat has to be on the right side of the ruling party. The sarpanches from the opposition have been complaining of discrimination in the matter of disbursement of grants for which there is no set criteria. As such, the tendency is to go with the ruling party, whichever is in power at the state level.
The election commission has set up 18254 booths out of which 4174 have been declared as sensitive and 1634 as hypersensitive.
It is for the first time that the villages have been divided into wards for the purpose of panchayat elections. This was challenged by the PPCC chief in the Punjab and Haryana High Court but the petition was rejected.
The counting would start the same day. The sarpanches are to be elected directly.
