Stage set for rural elections in Punjab

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, June 9

Finally, the stage is set for the panchayat and zila parishad elections, which need to be conducted before August.

These elections come at a time when the Congress and BJP are on a resurgence path in the state.

While the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stands substantially diminished due to the poor show in the Lok Sabha poll, the Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) presence seems to be restricted to just Bathinda and Ferozepur.

In the Lok Sabha poll, the Dalits and women voters had shifted towards the Congress and the BJP.

In this scenario, the rural elections will be yet another litmus test for AAP.

On June 7, the State Election Commission (SEC) had issued directions for the revision of the electoral rolls, taking into account January 1, 2024, as the qualifying date.

The directions stated that the SEC had earlier received data base with qualifying date of January 1, 2023, from the Chief Electoral Officer, for conducting the poll, as these elections had to be conducted before December 2023. “However, these could not taske place on account of administrative reasons, as the election process for the Lok Sabha elections had begun,” read the directions.

All panchayats were dissolved by the government after taking legal consultation on February 28.

These panchayats were dissolved under Section 29 A of the Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, and administrators were appointed. The five-year term of all panchayats had ended on February 15 this year.

Sources in the state government told The Tribune that the term of all panchayats had ended in February. Under Section 15 of the Panchayati Raj Act, the five-year tenure of panchayats starts from the date of its first meeting. It was the “misreading/ ignoring” of this section that led the state government to dissolve the panchayats in August last year, the order for which was subsequently withdrawn.

Later, two senior IAS officers were also placed under suspension for this “miscalculation”.