The Uttar Pradesh government has set the ball rolling for the three-tier panchayat elections by issuing a list of 75 reserved and unreserved posts of zila panchayat chairpersons. It has yet to announce reservation of kshetra panchayat chiefs (block-level heads).
Of the 75 posts, 25 have been reserved for women. “A total 16 seats have been reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) including 6 for women; 20 have been reserved for backward classes (BCs), including 7 for women; 27 seats have been put in the unreserved category; and 12 for women in general category,” additional chief secretary, panchayati raj, Manoj Kumar Singh said.
Though panchayat polls in UP are not contested on party lines and no party symbols are allotted to candidates, political parties do take interest in them and back candidates.
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“For villagers, these elections are of prime importance,“ retired panchayati raj official Sudab Chandola pointed out, adding “This is why they are eagerly waiting to find out if their village falls under a reserved category (SC, ST, BC, Woman) or has been left unreserved. The real activities start only after the reservation and seat allotment.”
{{/usCountry}}“For villagers, these elections are of prime importance,“ retired panchayati raj official Sudab Chandola pointed out, adding “This is why they are eagerly waiting to find out if their village falls under a reserved category (SC, ST, BC, Woman) or has been left unreserved. The real activities start only after the reservation and seat allotment.”
{{/usCountry}}The government has proposed to make final publication of lists of category-wise allotments for all around 58,000 village panchayats on March 14 after which the state election commission will announce the dates for panchayat polls which is a 45-day exercise from the announcement to voting and constitution of new village panchayats.
The government has decided on the rotation system of reservation under which, panchayats can be reserved for STs, SCs or BCs on the basis of their population in a block in the descending order but in a way, as far as possible, that a village panchayat is not reserved for the same category as the previous election.
The Allahabad high court last month directed the state government to hold overdue village panchayat polls by April 30 and zila and kshera panchayat polls by mid-May. The five-year term of village panchayats in UP ended on December 25, 2020, but the state government deferred polls for six months citing unavoidable circumstances’ as the reason and on December 24, issued an order appointing administrators in place of village pradhans.
“Now, the state election commission may announce the poll schedule around March 20 after the government completes reservation exercise by March 14,” a senior official dealing with the issue said.