The voting for Uttar Pradesh Zila Panchayat chiefs in 53 districts will begin from 11 am on Saturday and conclude by 3 pm. Only 53 posts out of 75 will go for polls after winners were declared unopposed in 22 districts.
On Friday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 21 seats unopposed and one candidate of the Samajwadi Party (SP) was also elected unopposed.
The State Election Commission said that zila panchayat chiefs have been elected unopposed from Saharanpur, Bahraich, Itawa, Chitrakoot, Agra, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahar, Amroha, Moradabad, Lalitpur, Jhansi, Banda, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Mau, Varanasi, Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur. UP State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar said that chairpersons of these zila panchayats have been elected unopposed.
“The BJP won 21 posts of zila panchayat chairpersons who were elected unopposed,” BJP general secretary JPS Rathore told PTI. SP spokesperson Sunil Singh Sajan said that their candidate won from Etawah.The elections have witnessed allegations of large-scale use of government pressure and administrative misuse by the BJP. BSP Chief Mayawati had declared not to contest the polls, mentioning the same reasons. Similarly, SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav had also accused the Yogi Adityanath government of threatening and intimidating.
Samajwadi Party (SP) on Saturday sacked the presidents of its 11 district units without giving any reason but people familiar with the developments told news agency PTI that they were ousted as they did not turn up for filing their nomination papers for the post of zila panchayat chairman. Earlier in Panchayat Polls, BJP had suffered a major setback as party’s several candidates lost and results were seen as a referendum on the Yogi govt. The panchayat polls or those for district panchayat chiefs are not held on the basis of political parties but the candidates enjoy the tacit support of various parties.
