StatesRajasthan
Rajasthan's panchayat race takes shape as Jodhpur strikes out candidates facing charges
Withdrawals for the first phase closed on Thursday, a week before voting. In Jodhpur, three opposition candidates were knocked out because courts had already framed charges against them.
Key points
- Rajasthan votes in four phases from 22 October to 16 November to fill about 1.55 lakh rural posts.
- Jodhpur's zila parishad has 148 valid nominations for 43 wards after scrutiny.
- Two RLP candidates and one Congress candidate were rejected because charges had been framed against them.
The field for the first round of Rajasthan’s village and district council elections was settled on Thursday afternoon, when the window for withdrawals closed at 3 pm. Voting for zila parishad and panchayat samiti members in that phase is on 22 October.
The state is electing its rural tiers in four phases between 22 October and 16 November. On the ballot are 41 zila parishads, 457 panchayat samitis and 14,403 gram panchayats, about 1.55 lakh posts in all, with more than 4.03 crore people eligible to vote. Polling for the first three phases was brought forward by a day after concerns that the original dates clashed with Dhanteras.
Struck out in Jodhpur
The most pointed decisions so far came from Jodhpur, where nominations for the district’s 43 zila parishad wards were examined on Wednesday. Of the 208 papers filed, 148 survived scrutiny.
Two candidates of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, from wards 11 and 13, and one Congress candidate, from ward 20, were rejected because courts had already framed charges against them in pending criminal cases, which they had declared in their own affidavits. A fourth candidate, also from the RLP, was turned down because the form was incomplete: details of the proposer and the security deposit were missing.
Additional District Collector Jawahar Chaudhary said a candidate’s eligibility is affected under the election rules once charges have been framed for an offence that carries a sentence of five years or more. “After this process, a total of 148 nominations remain valid,” he said.
Scrutiny was held at the district headquarters from 11 am under the returning officer and was filmed, with candidates present. Nominations were also filed for 90 wards across six panchayat samitis in the district, where scrutiny was largely complete. The administration has said it will watch candidates’ spending against the set limits for each post.
The parties dig in
For the RLP, losing three candidates in a single district before a vote is cast is an early setback. The Congress has already taken its campaign to the districts. At Bhawani Mandi in Jhalawar on Wednesday, its leaders Govind Singh Dotasra and Tikaram Julie told party workers to repeat their past showing in these polls.
The rural vote is spread over a month and runs into the festive season, and it gives Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma’s government and the opposition alike a read of the mood in the villages.
What comes next
Panch and sarpanch posts follow a separate track, with first-phase voting on 24 October. Elections for zila pramukh and up-pradhan in Baran, Sri Ganganagar, Karauli and Kota, and for pradhans in the samitis under them, will wait until December, when the sitting office-holders’ terms end.