RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, April 15: Already delayed by almost one and a half years, the Panchayat election in Jharkhand appears to be landing in controversy after its declaration on April 9 by the state election commission.
First, the controversy started over reservations of the backward classes when the BJP and the AJSU started cornering the state government for conducting elections without giving reservations to the backward classes. Now, the visitation programme of the union ministers after the declaration of the Panchayat election has irked the JMM, the ruling party of the state.
This was reflected after JMM general secretary Vinod Pandey during a press conference at the party office on Thursday took strong exception to the union ministers’ visit saying it violated the model code of conduct. He also said that the party will raise matters before the election commission.
“After the election was announced on April 9, the central ministers have started visiting various districts. Letters reaching the state government officials suggest from April 13, visits of the central minister have started. This is an attempt to influence the result of Panchayat elections in the state,” Pandey said.
When contacted state BJP president and Rajya Sabha member Deepak Prakash for his comment on the allegation he rubbished it saying that JMM does not have an idea of the model code of conduct.
“Panchayat elections are for rural areas. Ministers do not have any programme of visiting there. They have limited their programme to the Municipal Corporation and Municipal Board area. Yesterday a union minister was in Gumla but he did not go to a rural area. His programme was in Gumla town,” Prakash said, adding that the model code of conduct does not bar any union minister from reviewing union-sponsored programmes and doing other routine work.
A former election commissioner of Jharkhand echoed the same saying if any announcement influencing the voters of Panchayat election in Jharkhand is not being done by the union ministers visiting Jharkhand it cannot be treated as a violation of the model code of conduct. However, he said, the code of conduct keeps on changing and thus present officials can throw light in a better way on the matter.
The official website of the election commission of Jharkhand, sec jharkhand.nic.in, does not have a specific mention regarding the visit of the union minister when the model code of conduct was enforced in the State. The model code of conduct uploaded on the website suggests there is nothing wrong in routine exercises and working on the schemes already going on.
On April 13 and 14, union fishery, animal and dairy development minister Purushottam Rupala, visited Jharkhand while on April 17 and 18 union minister of state for education Annapurna Devi and on April 19-21 union minister of state for external affairs Raj Kumar Ranjan Singh are expected to visit.
The Panchayat election, which had got stuck since December 2020, will be held in four phases on 14th May, 19th May, 24th May and 27th May, 2022 for the election of Gram Panchayat Member, Mukhiya, Panchayat Samiti member and Zilla Parishad member of three-tier Panchayat bodies under Jharkhand State.
In total, 4345 Gram Panchayats, elections are to be held for the same number of Mukhiyas, 53479 Territorial Constituencies (Ward Members) of Gram Panchayat, 5341 Panchayat Samiti members, and 536 posts of Zilla Parishad.
