Ujjain: Despite shortage of majority in the 21-member Zila Panchayat (ZP) house, the Congress party succeeded in retaining the post of president. Re-election of ZP office bearers was conducted amid tight security at the Damdama located headquarters on Wednesday.
Congress nominee Karan Kumaria emerged victorious by one vote. However, BJP did manage to snatch away the post of vice-president which was earlier wrested by the Congress. Its nominee Dr Madanlal Chouhan won the election by one vote. As ZP CEO post is lying vacant for some days, district collector Shashank Mishra acted as an election officer. He was duly supported by ADM GS Dabar and SDM GS Verma. SP Sachin Atulkar also remained present during the election process.
Sigh of relief for BJP, Cong
In vice-president election, both the parties again put the cards of their strategies close to their chest. Observers were expected Congress win the vice-president election, but the result was just opposite. BJP’s Madanlal Chouhan who tasted defeat in the president election emerged victorious by securing 10 votes while Congress’s Rajendra Singh got 9 votes. Congress can heave a sigh of relief that despite shortage of majority they retained president’s post while BJP can claim that they at least snatched away vice-president post from the Congress in after crucial change of power in the state.
Election
ZP president post is reserved for SC while the vice-president post was unreserved. ZP has a 21-member house and as Parmar and Porwal no longer remained its member the strength shrank to 19. BJP had 10 members whereas the Congress tally restricted to 9 and that’s why these re-elections assumed significance also in the light of a fact that Congress is now in power in MP.
Election dates were deferred thrice, but voting was finally conducted from 11 am on Wednesday. Hundreds of policemen were deployed around the ZP headquarters. No vehicle was allowed to reach there. Only the persons, who had any role to play, were allowed inside.
Even the BJP and Congress leaders were seen getting into arguments with the policemen to get an entry. Speculations over the outcome of re-elections prevailed throughout the day in the local circles as the senior leaders of both parties threw their fullest capabilities which included luring the ZP members through various means and even passing the threats.
Caste-wise equations were also managed and thus the names of official candidates were declared at the eleventh hour. All 19 eligible ZP members casted their votes, but three of them preferred proxy voting. Two women members of Congress and one of BJP exercised their franchise via their husbands. Congress nominee Karan Kumaria declared elected for the president post by securing 10 votes while his opponent BJP candidate Dr Madanlal Chouhan got 9 votes.
Candidates’ antecedents
Mahesh Parmar was ZP member from Tarana, but new president Karan Kumaria is ZP member from Ujjain South constituency. New vice-president Dr Madanlal Chouhan is ZP member from Tarana whereas his predecessor Bharat Porwal was ZP member from Ghattiya. Both president and vice-president posts are now overpowered by the Balai community (SC) persons.
PARMAR’s CLOUT
Mahesh Parmar, who was ZP member since 2005, drew everybody’s attention in these elections and despite all odds managed the victory of Congress candidate. Party has four MLAs in the district, but barring him and Murli Morwal (Barnagar), rest MLAs Dilip Singh Gurjar (Nagda-Khachrod) and Ramlal Malviya (Ghattiya) maintained distance from this election. Alote MLA Manoj Chawla remained present throughout the day.
To second Parmar, former MLA Batuk Shankar Joshi and rural party president Kamal Patel seemed quite active. Victory procession of Karan Kumaria, whose father (late) Rajaram Kumaria was vice-president of ZP some 20 years ago, was also taken out from the main thoroughfares in the evening.
Bansal may face BJP’s brunt
From BJP camp, its rural unit president Shyam Bansal looked quite active, but his efforts failed at last. Party MLAs Bahadur Singh Chouhan, Paras Jain and Mohan Yadav and former president Tejbahadur Singh Chouhan also remained present during the proceedings. A party functionary told that the 10 members took oath for four times to vote for party candidate, but betrayed in the end.
His opponents may now exert more pressure on his ouster as the party had to face a huge debacle in the recent assembly elections and could register win on only 3, out of 7, seats of the district. His role was also severely criticised in the changing and selecting of candidate from Barnagar seat.
