The tussle over the recently concluded panchayat elections in Madhya Pradesh continued on Thursday, with both the BJP and the Congress claiming majority seats in the 313 janpad panchayats (tier-two panchayati raj bodies).
Although the panchayat elections are not contested on party symbols, both the major parties are making claims that candidates supported by them have been elected in majority of the tier-two panchayat bodies.
The elections for chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of the janpads from among elected members were conducted on July 27 and 28.
At the end of these elections on Thursday evening, BJP state president Vishnu Dutt Sharma claimed that candidates supported by the saffron party had won the top posts in 226 of 312 (court stay on elections in one janpad panchayat), while the Congress could manage only 64 and independents took 22 janpads.
He said on Wednesday, candidates backed by the party had won 121 out of 170 janpads, while the others were won on Thursday. “I congratulate the party workers for the historic win and express heartfelt gratitude to the voters for their support. This is the first time in the history of MP that BJP has got a big majority in rural local bodies’ polls and large numbers of highly educated youth of the party have won. Apart from hard work of party workers, this win is due to the welfare schemes of the BJP government at Centre led by PM Narendra Modi and state led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan,” Sharma said.
However, in a statement released to the media, MP Congress media cell chief K.K. Mishra claimed that the Congress had won 167 out of the 313 janpad panchayat seats in the state. In the first phase, Congress-supported candidates won in 89 janpads, while in second phase they won in 78 seats.
“Under the skillful leadership of Pradesh Congress Committee chief and ex-chief minister Kamal Nath, the party has posted excellent performance in rural polls after super performance in the urban local bodies’ polls,” Mishra said in the statement.
The media cell chief also alleged that by making false claims in the first list of winners on Wednesday, the BJP had already lost its credibility. “BJP leaders want to mislead people by making a lot of hullabaloo and by clicking photographs. Everyone was witness as to how they claimed Congress-supported winning candidates as their own candidates on Wednesday. Thursday’s list of BJP also has similar falsehoods and manipulations.”
Meanwhile, Kamal Nath tweeted to congratulate the ‘respected people’ of Madhya Pradesh for unprecedented support to Congress in the janpad panchayat elections. “Despite pressures of police, money and administration, the way you voted fearlessly and strengthened democracy will be worth emulating. I also extend best wishes to all winning candidates of Congress,” Nath said in his tweet.
Congress alleges misuse of power for ZP elections
Earlier in the day, in a joint press conference, Mishra and Congress MLAs P.C. Sharma and Arif Masood alleged gross misuse of power by the ruling BJP to manipulate the elections of the zilla (district) panchayat chairpersons and vice-persons slated for July 29.
The Congress leaders said the BJP has started to adopt various pressure tactics including open life threats to the Congress-supported elected members to ensure that they voted for BJP-backed candidates for chairpersons and vice-chairpersons. They also alleged that false police and legal cases were being put on Congress-supported members and the party has audio visual and other evidence of these manipulative and pressure tactics, which will be made public at the right time.
Reacting to the allegations, BJP spokesman Hitesh Bajpai said the Congress leaders should produce at least one concrete proof of the claims being made by it, if it was indeed serious about them. He said all the allegations were baseless and making such accusations was part of Congress media tactics in the face of big losses in the local bodies’ polls in the state.
