Village boycotts polls over reserved sarpanch seat
Vadodara: Most villages where elections for panchayats were to be held celebrated when candidates won uncontested earlier or on Wednesday when the results were declared. However, for this village in Panchmahal district, it was business as usual as if nothing happened here.
Residents of the Chandrapura village in Halol taluka did not put up candidates for the village panchayat election. The panchayat does not have an elected representative and will be run by an administrator.
The villagers are peeved that the sarpanch's seat is reserved for a scheduled tribe (ST) candidate, while there are hardly any scheduled tribe residents. The village has a predominantly Patel population.
An official said a similar boycott took place in 2015 and no nominations were filed.
"When polls were held again in 2016, no nominations were filed for the sarpanch's seat as it was reserved for an ST candidate. Elections were held for panchayat members and the deputy sarpanch held charge of the sarpanch's post," the official added.
When the notification for the panchayat election was published recently, the sarpanch's seat was reserved for an ST candidate again. Villagers decided to challenge this in the high court and filed a petition.
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They boycotted the election again and no nomination was filed.
Govind Patel, an elderly resident of the village, said it was unjustified to have reservation when the ST population in the village was negligible. Most others have similar opinions. Officials, however, said that the reservation was made based on the 2011 census, where the data shows 46 ST residents among the village's population of 681.
Panchmahal resident deputy collector J J Patel said that since the villagers approached the high court, it was not justified to comment on the matter at this stage. He, however, confirmed that the reservation was the reason for villagers not filing nominations.
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