Prayagraj: The candidates of the two main rival parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) — filed their nominations for the post of president of district panchayat here on Saturday.
BJP candidate Dr VK Singh filed his nomination papers in the presence of party’s Prayagraj and Phulpur MPs Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Keshari Devi Patel, respectively.
He filed the papers in the prescribed four sets with the signatures of eight proposers.
Giving this information, BJP corporator Pawan Srivastava said, “While addressing the workers before the nomination, state vice-president and MLC and district in-charge Laxmanacharya in his address said that the eminent doctor of Prayagraj, Dr Singh is the winning candidate.
He said that all the workers of the BJP have done an excellent work by showing solidarity and are worthy of being congratulated for the forthcoming win.” Likewise, Samajwadi Party candidate Malti Yadav also filed her nomination papers for the post of district panchayat president.
After the nomination, SP candidate Malti Yadav said, “I am sure of my victory.
SP supporters are being intimidated and threatened with fake cases by the administration.
Despite this, the number of supporters of SP has increased from 61 to 65.” “The situation has become such that the BJP candidate is not able to find support from the panchayat members.
The BJP candidate, the party and the entire government are desperate and disappointed,” she added.
Earlier, both the candidates took out processions on the road before reaching the district panchayat office for filing their nominations.
The norms of social distancing and wearing of masks was partially followed by supporters of both the parties.
Because of their procession, a long traffic jam was also witnessed on the main roads of the city, especially the roads near the reserve police line and UPSC crossing of the city.
Notably, several gram sabhas collectively form a ward.
The district has 84 wards from where one zila panchayat member each gets elected.
Now, to become the president of the district panchayat, the candidate (which are two in the present contest) should have support of over half of these zila panchayat members (in terms of Prayagraj it is 43 or more).
Elections for the president’s post would be held on June 3 and counting would be held after polling on the same date.