By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 27 Nov: The BJP has expressed confidence that elections will be held as soon as possible, describing the appointment of administrators in panchayats as fully constitutional. Dismissing the allegations of the Congress in this regard, BJP’s State spokesperson Suresh Joshi retorted that their governments have a record of not holding elections for 22 years. He also claimed that whenever elections are held after the completion of other processes, including the delimitation of the new Nagar Panchayat, the BJP will win a clear majority.
Responding to media questions about the allegations of the Congress, he said that everyone knows that, under the Panchayat Raj Act, neither the tenure can be extended nor elections conducted before the completion of the entire election process as per the existing provisions. Therefore, under constitutional processes, the government had only one option which was to appoint administrators and keep the development work in rural areas going.
Joshi asserted that, after the defeat in the recent elections, the opposition is coming up with weird arguments on Panchayat elections. He reminded that, even before this, in everyone’s governments, the Panchayat was extended from 6 months to 1 year almost every time. The Congress party governments themselves have a record of not conducting panchayat elections for 22 years. He alleged that Congress has never been confident of conducting elections of Panchayats and the Urban Local Bodies. The kind of arguments being put up by the Congress now are only an attempt to mislead the public.
Joshi asserted that the government has appointed the administrators as per the provisions of the Panchayat Act and further action will be taken accordingly. In recent years, in view of the convenience of the public, development of the area, and administrative simplification, the Dhami government has formed many Nagar Panchayats, for which delimitation and many important processes are being completed. He assured that the government will soon conduct panchayat elections by completing all the constitutional processes and requirements.
The BJP spokesman also claimed that looking at the results of the recent Lok Sabha, assembly elections and by-elections in various states, it is clear that BJP is going to win 100 percent of the seats at all levels of Panchayats. Because the people of Uttarakhand trust the BJP ‘s politics of development and not the negative politics of Congress. The BJP government has brought about tremendous improvements and reforms in the Panchayati Raj System in the country. New records have been set in terms of budget provision, the difference between cities and villages in terms of development is rapidly narrowing down and work has been done to give respect to panchayat representatives. The results of all this will be visible to everyone in the panchayat elections as well, Joshi claimed.
