BHOPAL: Amid accusations from the ruling party leaders that the Opposition Congress doesn’t want to see panchayat elections leaders from the Opposition announced on Monday that the party will not move the court as, they said, BJP is trying to mislead people with false claims.
“We are not going to move the court to challenge the three-tier Panchayat elections which was announced by the state election commission a couple of days ago”, said Congress MLA and former minister PC Sharma.
Another MLA and former minister Kamleshwar Patel also spoke on similar lines in a press conference called at Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters.
Sharma said BJP leaders indulged in a propaganda campaign to mislead people that the Congress leaders didn’t want to see panchayat elections. The fact was it’s the BJP government which issued an ordinance this year to do away with the delimitation process carried out by the then Congress government to pave the way for the panchayat elections.
“We are fully prepared for the panchayat elections. Inflation, death of farmers, shortage of fertiliser and unemployment will be our main issues during the elections. Those going to the court against holding of panchayat elections have nothing to do with the Congress party,” said Sharma.
Notably, several Congress leaders including former chief minister Kamal Nath had criticised the state government's move on the ordinance to annul the rotation of reservation and also delimitation done by the then Kamal Nath-led government in 2019.
The state government, in the ordination, stated that rotation of reservation and delimitation done in 2014’s panchayat elections will be in effect for the upcoming elections. There are several petitions challenging the ordination under considerations in the High Court.
The High Court, a couple of days ago, issued notice to the state government seeking its reply over the petitions in two weeks time.
Meanwhile, urban development and housing minister Bhupendra Singh Thakur alleged that Congress had tried to sabotage the panchayat elections in its 15 months regime.
The minister was talking to media, here on Monday.
The minister said, “When the Congress was in power in the state for 15 months, they had tried to conduct the elections through a fake method. The Congress leaders wanted to hold the elections in such a way that they could put in place their party members on the posts of panch, sarpanch, Janpad panchayat presidents and other posts.”
