Singrauli (Madhya Pradesh): The battle of ward-10 (Kulakwar) has been intensified with the sudden entry of Archana Singh, who filed her nomination at the last movement on Monday.
A former Congress MLA Sarswati Singh and former District Panchayat president Radha Singh, who is daughter-in-law of former cabinet minister Jagnath Singh have also filed their nomination from the same seat.
The Kulakwara ward of Singrauli District Panchayat is unreserved for woman.A total of 16 candidates have filed nominations from the seat.
Earlier, it was believed that there would be a close contest among Sarswati Singh, Radha Singh and Archana Parveshdhar Dubey. Sarswati Singh, who is member of Congress party and Radha Singh, who is member of BJP, is considered as archrival as Sarswati had defeated Radha Singh’s father-in-law in state assembly election in 2013.
But, the nomination of Archana Singh, wife of Nagendra Pratap Singh has added fuel to fire to the political battle of this ward. Now, the contest of this ward has been catching eyeballs.
The Kulakwara district panchayat ward is considered as a pocket borough of Nagendra Pratap Singh, though he never contested any election or joined any political party. It is said that Singh’s wife Archana Singh would prominently dent the vote banks of Sarswati Singh and Radha Singh.
As the post of Singrauli District Panchayat president is reserved for ST women, both Sarswati Singh and Radha Singh have been claiming that if they win the election, they would be District Panchayat president. On the other hand, all candidates belonging to unreserved category say that the ward has been reserved for unreserved category women after a long gap; therefore the candidate of unreserved category should be given a chance.
The local residents could also be heard whispering that women of unreserved category should be given a chance as the opportunity for women of unreserved category has come after a long gap.
If this wave works in the area, then there would be a close contest among Archana Singh, Archana Praveshdhar Dubey, Nitu Dwevedi and Nirmala Singh.
Notably, the fortune of both Radha Singh and Sarswati Singh is also hanging on the result of this election, as both of them are front runners for their candidature from Chitrangi Assembly constituency in upcoming state assembly from their respective political parties. If both of them are defeated in the District Panchayat election, they would be at back foot for state assembly candidates as the Kulakwara ward has more than 56 gram panchayats.
(with inputs from Amit Singh Parihar)
