Panchayat election: Poll panel weighs options as Cong attacks BJP

The State Election Commission (SEC) on Friday (May 22) sought suggestions from all deputy commissioners on whether or not elections should be held for gram panchayats whose term will end soon, even as the issue has become a political hot potato.

By June-July, the term of all 6,025 gram panchayats will end. The ruling BJP has asked the SEC to postpone the elections due to the COVID-19 crisis, which has angered the Opposition Congress.

The government is also toying with the idea of nominating pro-BJP people as members of administrative committees that will take control of the gram panchayats.

The SEC has pointed out that besides having to conduct elections, it will also have to prepare fresh voters lists and a new reservation roster as per a recent amendment to the Karnataka Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj Act. Plus, it noted that district and taluk officials were busy with the COVID-19 crisis.

Gram panchayats are the first in the self-governance strata and gaining control of all 6,000 of them can alter local political equations at the grassroots.

With the Opposition breathing down its neck, it is said that the BJP may consider appointing bureaucrats as administrators so as to insulate itself from political attacks for nominating party people as administrative committees.

“Administrative committees to the gram panchayats can be appointed only when it is not possible to conduct elections or when no members get elected even after two elections,” Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, who led a Congress delegation to the SEC on Friday, explained. “But we are not facing any such situation now, so administrative committees cannot be appointed,” he said.

“The SEC’s inaction towards initiating the electoral process, to replace the outgoing gram panchayat members, is unconstitutional and also violates the provisions of Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act,” Siddaramaiah said.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar said gram panchayat elections are fought without any parties or their symbols. “Why are they out to destroy democracy by appointing BJP workers to panchayats? You can’t saffronise the panchayat raj system. We will fight this,” he said.