Shimla: With elections to Panchayati Raj Institutions having concluded, claims and counter claims about winners being backed by one political party or the other mount, even though the poll was not conducted along party lines and no party symbol was allotted to any candidate in the election run up.
Laying claim to a massive victory in the rural poll, minister for transport Mohinder Singh said that BJP supported candidates had won the elections in over 70 % of the 3108 panchayats where polling was conducted.
He said that even though the vote count for some block samithis and zila parishad seats was yet to conclude, but the trend from what results have been finalized, the electorate had overwhelmingly backed BJP supported candidates in all the districts.
Congress president Kaul Singh Thakur, on the other hand had separately held that in majority of the panchayat bodies, it was congress backed candidates who had come out winners.
In a departure from the past, it was the election to 48 urban local bodies that was contested along party lines for the first time in the hill state, the results for which have been declared.
By amending the representative act for civic bodies, the elections for president and vice president was made a direct one in the urban local body and BJP candidates won the presidents election in 20 municipal bodies and vice president in 18 of them whereas congress candidates won the president election in 18 civic bodies and 21 vice-presidents positions.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
