In an unusual incident, the villagers of Basvapur of Sircilla mandal, about 50 kilometres from Karimnagar district headquarters, have elected their new sarpanch holding an auction in the presence of several hundreds of voters of the village on Monday.
Even as the Election Commission is reported to be all set to announce the notification for the conduct of elections to the gram panchayats, the Basvapur villagers unanimously elected their sarpanch, upa-sarpanch and ward members.
All the leaders of various communities, students and women’s self-help groups and others attended the auction which was held at the gram panchayat office. There were three competitors, but Ponnam Ravi Goud won the auction by quoting the highest price of Rs.4.15 lakh which will be paid by Mr. Ravi Goud. Laxma Reddy was elected the upa-sarpanch, while eight other ward members were also unanimously elected. Only the selected candidates would file nomination papers after the announcement of election notification and none else would be allowed to contest polls as per the norm constituted in the village. The villagers said that all other villages should follow the example set by them as it would reduce the election expenditure and the method could emerge as role model for the development of villages. Instead of all the contesting candidates spending huge amounts on posters, publicity material, hosting liquor parties and distribution of cash, this was the best and most transparent method of electing the representatives of local bodies, they said.
Mr. Ravi Goud, who purchased the post, told The Hindu, “It is good for the village as there will be no elections and the amount I auctioned would be used for the development of the village.
