Hisar villagers elect new sarpanch unanimously

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, September 17

Residents of Litani village in the Uklana block have unanimously elected a newly married woman as sarpanch after the death of the previous woman sarpanch.

Suresh Kumar, a mason from scheduled cast, remarried Jyoti (23) of Jhuppa Siwani village in Bhiwani district after his first wife Aarti Rani, the previous sarpanch, died of a disease about six months ago. The villagers took the decision to back the family of the late sarpanch by supporting Jyoti.

A matriculate, Jyoti also fulfils the education criteria set by the state government. The post of sarpanch in this village is reserved for Dalit women.

Though Jyoti was not interested in contesting the elections, the entire village with over 4,500 voters reposed faith in her. Ashok Kumar, a panch, said some sarpanch aspirants were eager to contest the bypoll after Aarti’s death, but the villagers said it was against the ethos of society. “We had unanimously elected Aarti. Now it will be a betrayal to Aarti if the villagers elect anybody else but Jyoti,” said Ashok, maintaining village elders from all castes and communities met yesterday and asked other aspirants to withdraw their nomination papers.

The villagers had elected the entire village panchayat, including sarpanch and 17 panches, unanimously about eight months ago.

Apart from one post of sarpanch, the State Election Commission has organised repoll to fill 105 posts of panch in villages of nine blocks in the district. Sources said of these, 81 panches had been elected unopposed, while there had been no nomination for 15 vacancies. Thus, a re-poll would be held for nine positions of panches in different villages in the district on September 25.