People's Democracy

Nominations Filed For Bengal Panchayat Polls  

  B Prasant

THE task of filing in the nomination papers for the panchayat polls ended late on April 16 afternoon.  The original date for this purpose was April 14.  The date was subsequently extended by a notification of the state Left Front government because April 14 was a government holiday.

The nomination papers were be scrutinised on April 17. The last date of withdrawal of nomination was fixed for April 22. The voting will take place on May 11. Counting will start on May 13.

The total number of the rural electorate is 3,38,11,734. Polling centres number 43,832. The counting of votes will take place at 329 counting centres. As many as 58,357 seats are being fought for at the three levels of the panchayat system: 17 Zilla Parishads (713 seats); 329 Panchayat Samities (8,500 seats), and 3,220 Gram Panchayats (49,144 seats).

The opposition in Bengal continues to be in complete disarray, thanks to bitter and continued infightings, and an organisational framework that is in a complete shambles. A large number of workers of the Pradesh Congress, the Trinamul Congress and the BJP have been frustrated enough to ignore the call of various factions of the parties to file nomination papers.

Angry and confused, Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee and her ally, the BJP, first started a clamour first about a re-scheduling of the polls, then a call for boycotting the polls, and finally, a hark back to their pet theme of having the polls conducted under president’s rule. The union HRD minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi added grist to the opposition’s mill recently by making a statement in support of the opposition’s stand vis-à-vis the panchayat polls. Left Front chairman and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Biman Basu, sharply critical of the recent statement of Dr Joshi in this regard, said that it “is hardly the task of the CPI(M) and the Left Front to find candidates for the opposition who would be eager to file nomination.” (INN)

April 20, 2003