BJP candidates to win unopposed in 17 districts in zila panchayat chairperson polls; SP alleges foul play by officials

LUCKNOW: With no other candidates filing nominations on Saturday -- the last day to submit papers -- the ruling BJP candidates are set for being elected unopposed to the Zila Panchayat chairperson posts in at least 17 out of the 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh.

With no other candidates filing nominations and in some districts, the nomination papers of the opposition candidates were rejected by the district election authorities, the BJP candidates are set to be elected unopposed in at least 17 districts.

The BJP candidates are assured of triumph unopposed in CM Yogi Adityanath’s native district Gorakhpur, Ghaziabad, Lalitpur, Moradabad, Bulandshahar, Saharanpur, Amroha, Gonda, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Meerut, Mau, Agra, Sharwasti, Balrampur and Banda. 

Ex-chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, however, alleged that the local authorities at the behest of the BJP government stopped SP candidates from filing nominations in many districts, including CM’s native district Gorakhpur. “Let the BJP get their candidates elected unopposed through use of official machinery, but the people of the state will ensure that the BJP isn’t able to win in 2022 assembly polls, even those many seats that it claims to have won in the district panchayat chairperson polls,” Yadav tweeted.

Meanwhile, in a significant development, the Mayawati-led BSP candidates remained away from the nomination process, despite being in decisive numbers in some districts, consequently helping the BJP candidates to win unopposed.

In Mau district, where BSP had maximum seven elected district panchayat members where as the BJP merely had two district panchayat members, the BJP candidate Manoj Rai is set to be elected unopposed as district panchayat chairperson, as the BSP didn’t field any of its district panchayat members as candidate for the July 3 chairperson polls.

In Ghaziabad district also, the BSP didn’t field it's candidate, despite having significant numbers of district panchayat members.

In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi district, where only BJP and SP candidates are in fray, the BJP and SP candidates have demanded rejection of rival candidate nomination papers, citing technical flaws in the papers.