Sarpanch’s body resolves to campaign against BJP in LS polls

The decision was taken at a state-level meeting of the body at Jamba village in Nilokheri sub-division of Karnal and was chaired by block president Bhupinder Singh Ladi

The Haryana Sarpanch Association on Tuesday unanimously decided to protest and campaign against the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidates in the Lok Sabha elections and vote for a “strong” opposition nominee.

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The decision was taken at a state-level meeting of the body at Jamba village in Nilokheri sub-division of Karnal and was chaired by block president Bhupinder Singh Ladi. Around 100 sarpanches from various districts attended the meeting.

The association is an influential body that led the months-long protests against the state government in 2023 against the introduction of e-tendering for development works in rural areas and the right to recall act in panchayats.

The body in the presence of state president Ranbir Samain, further decided that meetings will be held in all 10 Lok Sabha seats across the state, asking the village heads to campaign against their BJP candidates and support strong opposition candidates by voting for them.

Samain said that though the meeting was of Karnal Lok Sabha, office bearers from all the districts were called to take the “big decision”.

“We will ensure that the party which lathicharges sarpanches, snatches their rights and becomes a hindrance in the development of villages, will be ousted from power. When Manohar Lal, the former chief minister of the state, will come to ask for votes, the sarpanch should remind him that the wounds of lathicharge have not yet healed,” he said.

On March 2 last year, Haryana Police lathicharged the sarpanches, who had gathered on Chandigarh-Panchkula border to protest against the e-tender policy, as they tried to break barricades and march towards former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s residence.

The president further said that they will opt for a door-to-door campaign against the BJP.

“The Sarpanch is the head of the village government. They (BJP) alleged that the panchayats do not carry out work in the villages. They should know that before 1994, there was no metalled road in villages. But after the new rules in 1994, now we have no unmetalled road in any village, dharamshalas in every village and whatnot,” he mentioned.

Isham Singh, sarpanch of Jamba village, who organised the meeting, said that the sarpanch should get back all the powers for the development of the village that the state government had “snatched away”.

Bhupinder Singh Ladi, who was presiding over the meeting, said, “Sarpanch should be given the power to spend ₹20 lakh to get the work done in the villages. The policy of e-tendering should be abolished, due to which, we are unable to carry out development works in the villages. The government has not released grants for the last one and a half years, which should be issued at the earliest.”

Currently, the saffron party represents all 10 seats from the state in the Parliament and has already announced candidates from all the seats for the 18th general elections.

As part of the seat sharing agreement under INDIA bloc, Congress will contest on nine, while AAP will test waters from Kurukshetra seat with its state president Sushil Gupta as the candidate.

Polling will be held in a single phase on May 25 with counting of votes on June 4.