Elections for 53 zila panchayat chairperson seats in Uttar Pradesh will be held on Saturday, according to poll officials, after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 22 of them unopposed and the Samajwadi Party’s candidates won one. The polls, which will take place ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections next year, will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the counting of votes will begin after that, according to officials.
In a statement released on Tuesday, UP State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar said that chairpersons of zila panchayats in 22 districts were elected without opposition. The winning candidates’ party affiliation was not announced by the poll panel, but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) later claimed victory.
Saharanpur, Bahraich, Etawah, Chitrakoot, Agra, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Amroha, Moradabad, Lalitpur, Jhansi, Banda, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Mau, Varanasi, Pilibhit, and Shahjahanpur are the districts where zila pancha
Akhilesh Yadav, the president of the Samajwadi Party, has accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of rigging the elections for district panchayat chairpersons. “In rigging the district panchayat chairperson elections, the chief minister has gone beyond all limits.” On June 28, Akhilesh Yadav said, “His undemocratic behaviour has put the state’s constitutional institutions in jeopardy.”
In a statement, the former UP chief minister added, “The state administration forcibly prevented candidates of the Samajwadi Party and other opposition parties from filing nominations.”
Mayawati, the BSP’s president, has stated that her party will not run for zila panchayat chairman, instead focusing its efforts on strengthening the organisation and expanding its base ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections next year. “Once the BSP forms a government in the state, the majority of zila panchayat chairman will join the BSP because they cannot function without power,” says a source. We took this into consideration and decided not to run for office,” she said on June 28.
Senior officials have been appointed as observers in all districts, according to the State Election Commission, to ensure peaceful and transparent polling and counting of votes for zila panchayat chiefs.
Zila panchayat chairpersons are chosen from the elected members of zila panchayats in Uttar Pradesh’s 75 districts. Although panchayat elections or those for district panchayat chiefs are not held on a party basis, candidates do have the tacit support of various parties.
