Lukewarm response to gram panchayat polls

By S.K. Ramoo

BANGALORE, FEB. 22. An air of ennui appears to have engulfed people in Karnataka over the grama panchayat elections, which are scheduled for February 23 and February 27.

The lack of interest among the rural people, who will be voting for 74,496 seats in 5,286 grama panchayats, is clearly evident. A significant feature is that as many as 19,751 candidates, representing 26.5 per cent of total number of seats, have already been elected unopposed. What is surprising is that there were no candidates in the fray for as many as 585 seats.

The first round of polls on Wednesday will be held in 14 districts, including the prestigious Bangalore Rural. In the remaining 12 districts, the polls will be held on Sunday. The polls in Bellary and Harapanahalli in Davangere were postponed following the Lok Sabha bypoll in the constituency on February 17. The State Election Commission has announced that the counting of votes in would be held on February 29.

The panchayat elections, which are held on non-party lines, do not seem to have evoked any enthusiasm. In all, 1,38,215 candidates are the fray. The highest number of 11,734 unopposed candidates are from the Tumkur District, representing 4,908 grama panchayats. In Belgaum district, elections for 2,453 of the 7,116 seats went unopposed. The number of unopposed candidates in the tiny district of coffee-rich Kodagu is 44. One reason for many seats going uncontested might be the lack of candidates from the reserved categories. Another reason might be that those with political clout had prevailed on the villagers not to put up their candidates against the ones nominated by them. Moreover, in many panchayats, people, in a rare gesture of unity, had got their consensus candidates elected unopposed. The compulsory rural toilet rule and the last-minute change of reserve symbols allotted earlier can also be said to have contributed to the lack of interest.

The previous Janata Dal Government had postponed the elections after developing cold feet over holding them on the eve of Assembly elections.

That the Krishna Government would hold the elections was initially uncertain. The Minister of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Mr. M.Y. Ghorpade, held out a threat that he would quit the Ministry, as he had done earlier in the Moily Government, if the elections were postponed. In the end, the Government had to agree to hold elections.

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Section  : Regional
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