Akhilesh faces acid test in UP panchayat polls

Polls to these rural local bodies dubbed semi-final before 2017 state assembly elections

The ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh is facing the acid test in the form of the forthcoming panchayat elections starting next month.

UP panchayat elections are slated between September 9 and December 15, 2015 to fill the post of 59,164 gram pradhans, 74,3297 gram panchayats, 78,075 kshetra panchayats and 3,134 zila panchayat members.

In the media and political circles, these polls have been popularly dubbed as the semifinal before the 2017 assembly elections, when chief minister Akhilesh Yadav would seek reelection after his maiden stint in office.

He was sworn in as CM in March 2012, when he had upstaged Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati.

The outcome of the panchayat polls would be eagerly awaited by both the SP and the challenger Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), especially in the backdrop of the latter registering wins in the recent local bodies polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bangalore.

The importance being attached to the panchayat polls can be gauged from the fact that even SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav had earlier this month exhorted party cadres to gear up for them.

Talking to party workers, he had recalled the Left parties had successfully ruled in West Bengal for decades due to their good performance in panchayat polls. However, when they lost these grassroots elections, the communist regime was voted out in the state elections as well.

In fact, he was critical of the poll preparedness of the party and had even doubted the prospects of SP candidates in the panchayat polls.

However, he had asked the chief minister to ensure free and fair panchayat elections.

Meanwhile, UP cabinet minister and SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary today reiterated the state government would ensure transparent panchayat elections.

In a press communique, he censured BJP's UP in charge Om Mathur for his alleged apprehension of booth capturing in the panchayat polls.

Chaudhary said BJP won 71 Lok Sabha seats under the SP regime, since the ruling party upheld democratic values. If the 2014 polls were not free and fair, would BJP have won so many seats, he posed. SP had performed badly in general elections with the party barely managing to win 5 seats.

In the three-tier panchayat polls, about 110 million electorate would elect almost 8,84,410 representatives, including gram pradhan apart from the members of the gram panchayat, kshetra panchayat and zila panchayat.