Panchayat elections are the flesh and blood of grassroots democracy. What Tamil Nadu will be witnessing in the first week of October 2021, will be completion of a long-drawn process of holding elections to the rural local bodies by the State Election Commission.
The elections to rural local bodies, first announced by the TamilNadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) in December 2019 to hold it in two phases of December 27 and December 30 that year, ran into legal issues. The Supreme Court then decided to put on hold the elections for local bodies in nine new districts, carved out of four existing ones and gave the TNSEC four months to complete the formalities such as delimitation and reservation of wards in the new districts.
In the first round, elections to rural local bodies were held in 28 districts of Tamil Nadu, in two phases in December 2019, in which the then opposition DMK and its allies came out with flying colours in the majority of posts for which elections were held.
In the newly carved out nine districts, as a result of bifurcation and trifurcation of some of the existing districts, - namely, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Villupuram, Kallakuruchi, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupathur, Tirunelveli and Tenkasi down south-, the TNSEC had four months to complete the delimitation and reservation exercises.
However, with the Covid-19 novel coronavirus pandemic striking in two phases since March 2020, and the following Assembly elections in April-May this year, the second round of the rural local bodies’ polls got delayed.
The TNSEC sought more time to hold the elections, but the Supreme Court firmly directed the elections be held in the remaining nine districts also by September 15, 2021. Elections to the Urban Local Bodies are still some times away, as the State has asked the Supreme Court to give it seven more months to hold them. The Apex court on September 27 gave the TNSEC four+ months to complete the Urban Local Bodies elections.
As per the poll schedule for Rural Local Bodies in the nine districts announced by Dr. V. Palanikumar, Tamil Nadu State Election Commissioner, the first phase of polling will be held on October 6 and the second on October 9. The counting of votes will be taken up on October 12. The first meeting of the elected members of local bodies at various levels is scheduled to be held on October 20, 2021.
The polls for the rural local bodies in the newly bifurcated nine districts will be held for the posts of 140 District Panchayat Councillors, 1,381 Panchayat Union Council ward members in 74 Panchayat Unions (PU), 2,901 Village Panchayat Presidents and 22,581 Village Panchayat Ward members. In all, the total number of posts to be filled in all these rural local bodies in the nine districts is 27,003 posts. 'Casual elections' for vacancies in Rural Panchayats in other 28 districts are also being held simultaneously now.
While elections to the posts of Village Panchayat Presidents and Village Panchayat Ward members are held on non-party basis, elections to District Panchayat Councillors and Panchayat Union Council Ward members are on party basis. These directly elected ward members will then elect their respective District Panchayat Chiefs and Panchayat Union Council Chairpersons and Village Panchayat Vice-Presidents indirectly on October 22.
The total number of nominations for various posts in these nine districts, received when nominations closed on September 23, was a staggering 97,831 persons in the race for 27,003 posts at stake. After scrutiny and the last date for withdrawal of nominations, the number of candidates in the race was still a huge 79,433 persons, indicating the importance of contesting grassroots democratic institutions. About 2,980 contestants were elected unopposed to various posts, according to the TNSEC. Non-holding of Local Bodies polls in time has serious implications for funds flow and development works at the village level and upwards to the District Panchayat level.
The ruling DMK, fresh from its Assembly poll victory, with its allies-, the Congress, VCK, Left parties and others-, is confident of sweeping this phase of the Rural Local Bodies polls also, as they did during the 2019 Panchayat elections. The DMK's alliance is intact and seat-sharing worked out amicably at the respective district levels.
However, in the AIADMK-led opposition camp, the PMK led by Dr. S. Ramadoss has walked out of that alliance for this round of the Rural Local Bodies elections and have ambitiously pitched their expectations high as seven of the nine districts going to the polls overlap with the traditional 'Vanniyar' belt
The AIADMK and BJP, though, have worked out local seat adjustments for this election. Yet, in Kallakurichi district, the BJP in some places is fighting the AIADMK. The Vijayakant-founded DMDK parted ways with the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK), a breakaway faction of the AIADMK, and both parties are contesting the Local Bodies polls on their own. The Naam Tamizhar Katchi and the Makkal Neethi Maiyam are also contesting on their own.
The M.K.Stalin-led new DMK government in the State is fulfilling one poll promise after another (in the first 142 days in Office, the DMK government has implemented 202 of the 505 assurances it gave to the people in the Assembly election manifesto). The Chief Minister is keen on reaching out to the people, particularly to the poor and the marginalised sections, fighting Covid-19 on a war footing including holding mass vaccination camps for the people.
Mr. Stalin has also been emphasising on transparent and fair governance and taking steps to ensure inclusive development with social justice; all these cumulatively make the DMK-led front's chances brighter in this Panchayat polls.
