Voting
Ahmedabad: The bugle of panchayat elections in Gujarat is over. Voting will be held on 22 June in 8,326 gram panchayats to choose the sarpanches as well as panchayat members. In this, 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes will be applicable. This announcement was made by the State Election Commission (SEC) on Wednesday. It is noteworthy that elections of Gram Panchayat are usually fought on non-dio-base. Gram Panchayat elections are being held after a delay of almost two years, due to the issue of OBC (Other Backward Classes) reservation.
With the announcement of the election schedule, the Model Code of Conduct has come into force in Gujarat. In this, the date of counting of votes has been fixed on 25 June. Based on the report of the Zaveri Commission in the year 2023, after the announcement of 27 percent reservation to OBCs in local bodies like panchayats, municipalities and municipal corporations, the Gram Panchayat elections are being held for the first time in the state on such a large scale. The SEC said in a release in Gandhinagar that out of these 8,326 gram panchayats, 4,688 will have common or mid -term elections, while 3,638 Gram councils will hold by -elections.
Voting will be held from 7 am to 6 pm
In the panchayat elections, candidates stand individually, not on party tickets, although they may be associated with political organizations. The release said that the polling will be held on June 22 from 7 am to 6 pm, while the counting of votes will take place on 25 June. The last date for filing nomination is 9 June, while the last date for withdrawal of name is 11 June. It states that elections will be conducted through ballot papers and voters will be given the option of NOTA (none of them).
Both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress welcomed the announcement of Gram Panchayat elections in the state. Manish Doshi, spokesperson of the Gujarat unit of Congress, said, “The Congress welcomes the SEC’s announcement about the election of Gram Panchayats. The elections were staying for almost two years. The Congress has been demanding elections for a long time, as the ruling BJP had taken away the power of the people by appointing the administrator after the term of these panchayats ended.
Gujarat BJP spokesperson Yagyesh Dave denied the Congress’s allegation that the ruling party is behind the delay in holding rural body elections. He argued that the election was delayed because the SEC had to complete the important task of calculating the OBC population in each ward with the objective of implementing 27 percent reservation approved by the state government. Dave said, “The work of estimating the OBC population was important to ensure that there was no injustice to backward classes.” The Congress is only spreading wrong information among the public. If the elections had been announced earlier, it would have alleged that the BJP had held a hasty elections to deprive OBCs of their rights. We are confident that BJP candidates will win the election. ”(Input-language)
