Lucknow: The impending panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh have led to an increase in political rivalry, leading to a spurt in crimes.
Elections to 59,076 village panchayats in the state are due later this year and there has been a spate of killings and murderous attacks in the rural interiors of the state.
On April 9, the head of Mehroda village in Chandauli district was shot at.
On May 18, the head of Palia village near Ayodhya, Jaiprakash Singh, was shot dead. On the same day, half a dozen armed men attacked the relatives of a village pradhan in Baghpat, killing one on the spot and injuring two others.
A day later, in Sambhal, a village head’s husband and son were gunned down in the ongoing village rivalry. The sensational murders were even caught on camera and the video had gone viral.
On May 20, two brothers were killed in a Meerut village when clashes broke out between supporters of the former and sitting village heads.
Last week, a farmer was murdered due to political rivalry in Bareilly region.
Two warring groups – both having stakes in the panchayat polls – fought a pitched battle in Arjunpur village in Sultanpur district.
Panchayat elections are scheduled to be held before December 15 this year and UP minister for Panchayati Raj, Bhupendra Chaudhary, has already dispelled rumours that the elections could be postponed due to the corona crisis.
“We have time and we will ensure that the panchayat polls are held on time,” he had stated last week.
Violence before the panchayat polls is now an established trend in Uttar Pradesh.
In the 2015 panchayat polls in the state, over a dozen lives were lost in the pre- and post-poll violence while many more were injured.
Additional director general (law and order) Prashant Kumar said, “The UP police does not segregate between general increase in crime and those linked with rural politics. Rivalries in villages generally arise out of land disputes and the line dividing crime due to political rivalries and other reasons often gets blurred. We cannot have a separate data of poll-related violence when the announcement of such election is still more than six months away. However, we are keeping a close watch on the incidents and have developed a multi-pronged strategy to mitigate this problem.”
The ADG added that the district administrations have been advised to fill up 19,500 vacancies of chowkidars (guards) and digital volunteers are being trained to ensure there is no flare-up due to the abuse of social media in poll-related rivalries in the rural areas.
The panchayat polls are also important for the national parties because the local leaders’ grip on these voters and their ability to swing votes in favour of candidates in the assembly and general elections, is determined in these elections.
–IANS
