Political activity picks up pace as panchayat polls announced

Manmeet Singh Gill 

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 8

As the panchayat elections have been announced in the state for December 30, political activity has picked up pace in villages. 

As the elections were long due and speculations being made that these might be delayed once again, the aspirants were earlier little dejected.

In the district, the elections will be held for 860 panchayats. The aspirants for the elections had been active ever since change of guard in the state last year. 

Jagpal Singh, a resident of Khairdi village, said, “In the panchayat elections, an aspirant has to spend a lot of money. A common person with no money cannot think of contesting the elections. The aspirants have been serving booze to their supporters for the past many months.” 

Winning the panchayat elections and getting the word ‘sarpanch’ prefixed to their names is a mark of reputation for long. 

“The sarpanch is the go-to man of an MLA in the village. A person elected as sarpanch automatically gets closer to the MLA. This is the biggest reason why the post of sarpanch holds importance for political ambitions,” said Kewal Singh from Attari.

As per the schedule announced by the government, the aspirants can file their nominations from December 15 to December 19. Nomination papers will be scrutinised on December 20 while the date of withdrawal and issuing election symbols is December 21. 

The election will be conducted on December 30 and the results will be announced on the same day.

Schedule

• As per the schedule announced by the government, the aspirants can file their nominations from December 15 to December 19.  
• Nomination papers will be scrutinised on December 20 while the date of withdrawal and issuing election symbols is December 21.
• The election will be conducted on December 30 and the results will be announced the same day.