Odisha: No candidature for 11,000 wards in panchayat polls

In the forth coming panchayat election, 11,000 wards in Odisha will remain unelected because no one filed nomination in these wards.

Odisha is going for Panchayat polls in February. In this election, over 2 crore voters will choose more than 1 lakh contestants for the position of Sarpanchs, Ward members, Nominees and Zilla parisad members.

From the 1,00,841 leaders, 87,528 persons have to be selected as ward members. But according to latest report available with election commission of Odisha, after end of securitisation process, 11 thousands posts of ward members will be remain vacant due to non availability of candidatures.

Is this a symbol of apathy of rural people towards democracy? Senior political analyst Rabi Kanungo says, "Local politics is something different from state politics or national politics. Local politics is largely influenced by local situation. But no candidature for more than 11,000 words is a matter of worry."

Similarly, in Maoist affected Narayana Patana and Bandhugaon bloc of Koraput district, no one filed nomination for any post. Even in some panchayats, only one candidate filed his nomination on the direction of Maoist organisation.

According to latest report of Odisha Election Commission, 33,404 candidates have been elected without any contest. An officer of election commission said on the condition of anonymity, “We know that most of the ward member seats of Narayanapatana area are laying vacant due to Maoist threat. Still we cannot do any thing because we have a guideline to follow.