Bhopal, Jul 16 (PTI) Elections to the post of president and vice-president of district and Janpad panchayats in Madhya Pradesh will be held between July 24 and July 29, the State Election Commission (SEC) said on Saturday.
The panchs (members), who have been elected recently, will also elect deputy sarpanch during this period, SEC Secretary Rakesh Singh said.
"Elections to the post of deputy sarpanchs will be held on July 24 for those village panchayats which went to polls in the first phase. Village panchayats where polls were held in the second and third phases will elect deputy sarpanch on July 25 and 26 respectively," Singh said.
"The polls to the post of president and vice-president of Janpad panchayats by the recently elected members will be held on July 27 for the first phase and on July 28 for the second phase. District panchayat members will elect their respective presidents and vice-presidents on July 29," he added.
As many as 873 candidates across the state's 52 districts were declared victorious in the district panchayat member polls on Friday, another official said.
"A total of 875 district panchayat members were to be elected but results of two places are yet to be declared. Among the 873 winners, one candidate was elected unopposed, while polls were held for 872 seats," the official said.
Despite these elections being held on a non-party basis, the ruling BJP and opposition Congress claimed majority of their supporters won.
Madhya Pradesh BJP general secretary Bhagwan Das Sabnani claimed 85 per cent of the winners were supporters of his party, though state Congress spokesperson JP Dhanopia said the claims were false since panchayat elections are not contested on party lines.
"The ruling BJP has committed irregularities in the elections and even officials were forced to change the results in its favour where fights were also close," he alleged.
The three-tier panchayat elections were held by using ballot papers, while for urban local body polls, electronic voting machines (EVM) were deployed. Voting for these elections were held in three phases on June 25, July 1 and July 8.
Results of urban bodies, including municipal corporations, municipal councils and nagar parishad polls, held in two phases and contested on party lines, will be announced on July 17 (first phase) and July 20 (second phase), an official said.
"The total number of district panchayat members (across 52 districts) was 875, while the count of janpad panchayat members (313 janpads), sarpanches and panchs in the state stood at 6,771, 22,921 and 3,63,726, respectively. In the three-tier panchayat polls, the voting percentage was 80.31 per cent," he said.
The term of 91 village panchayats will end in November and the schedule of polls for these will be issued separately later.
