While State BJP leaders project the local bodies’ poll as a dry run for replicating the undivided CPI’s 1957 in the Assembly elections next year, there is apparently no consensus among them on some critical, yet contentious policies mooted by the Gujarat government when Narendra Modi helmed the State government.
Mr. Modi had introduced an incentivised scheme of ‘consensual’ grama panchayats — in a bid to do away with elections at the lowest level — and also got the Assembly to enact a piece of legislation that made abstention from elections to municipalities and city Corporations an offence. The enforcement of this legislation, The Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Act, was stayed by the Gujarat High Court, after it was widely criticised.
In Kerala, the moves, apparently, have yet to gain some consensual traction in the BJP.
Unanimous election
“Unanimous election of representatives to grama panchayat forms part of our idea of grama swaraj,” says BJP general secretary A.N. Radhakrishnan, who insists the party is confident of clinching a ‘surprise’ victory in the Assembly polls.
“This concept rises above party politics and averts fissure in the community,” he says.
“These are drawn from Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya’s notions of ‘Ramarajya’ and ‘grama swaraj’ outlined in his book, ‘Ekatma Manav Darshan. It doesn’t mean, though, that they should be brought on overnight. People should first be made aware of the need to vote,” says Mr. Radhakrishnan.
But another general secretary of the party K. Surendran, takes exception to the idea of adapting either of those initiatives in Kerala. “It would defy logic. The State has a strong poll culture even when it comes to elections to a small cooperative society,” he says, dismissing the practicality of a ‘manufactured consensus’.
Coercive vote
On the question of ‘coercive vote’, he says this would be redundant in a state like Kerala which logs high voter turnout in local bodies polls.
“If it was about 76 per cent in 2010, it is expected to cross the 80 per cent mark this time around. Why do you then want a legislation to drag people to the polling booths?” he asks.
Narendra Modi had introduced an incentivised scheme of ‘consensual’ grama panchayats in Gujarat in a bid to do away with elections at the lowest level.
