Parties unlikely to contest elections on their symbols

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
Haryana’s main political parties are unlikely to contest the upcoming panchayat elections on party symbols. Party-supported candidates or those with political leanings will decide the “winning party” when the results are out.
Sources said all three main political parties, in keeping with the usual practice, are likely to refrain from openly campaigning for fear of biting the dust since they all have weaknesses as they go into the election mode.
Moreover, after the declaration of results, it becomes easier for the party with influence, usually the one in power in the state, to “win over” the elected representatives and claim them as their own.
Sources claim the BJP does not want to field any candidate essentially because it has an urban base. The Congress has never ever ventured into panchayat elections officially though party-supported candidates have been in the fray.
As for the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), it is at a disadvantage given the educational qualification clause for candidates and will stick to fielding candidates for the block samitis and the zila parishads.
INLD leader Abhay Chautala has announced his party would contest the panchayat elections on the party symbol if the Congress and the BJP do so, which is unlikely to happen.
Sources said many new faces could be in the fray given several conditions set by the government, while women candidates who fulfil the educational qualification criterion seem hard to come by.
The introduction of minimum qualification has upset the plans of many a local leader who field their wives and run the show themselves for the entire term. Sources said the average age of candidates would come down since most of the educated women would be young.
In Haryana, 16,081 seats are reserved for women panches and 1,642 for women sarpanches. There are 736 seats for panchayat samitis and 102 posts for zila parishad members.
BJP makes it official
Sirsa: Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma on Wednesday said the BJP would not contest the elections to the Panchayati Raj Institutions on the party symbol. “The BJP has never contested the panchayat elections on the party symbol in the past either,” he told the media at the house of Leader of the Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala here. Ram Bilas rebutted the allegations levelled by a section of Congress leaders that the BJP was trying to run away from the panchayat elections by not contesting on the party symbol.
 
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