Thanks to the hard lessons learnt from the Aerath panchayat muddle in 2010,the United Democratic Front (UDF), Left Democratic Front (LDF), and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are all cautiously moving their pawns in grama panchayats where the president’s job has been reserved for women of the Scheduled Castes.
Aerath was a bitter irony for the LDF. Despite logging a majority in the panchayat, the LDF had tosupport the lone SC woman member, Shobhana Kunjukunju, of the rival Congress, who made it to the panchayat committee as the president in 2010. Though the LDF later ousted Ms. Kunjukunju through a ‘no trust’ motion after two-and-a-half years, it just did not have an SC replacement of its own. To its chagrin, the LDF had to endorse Ms. Kunjukunju’s return to the job later. That made Ms. Kunjukunju the UDF’s panchayat president in the first half of her tenure and then the LDF nominee in the second. This time, the posts of president at the Kottanad, Ranni-Perinad, and Konni grama panchayats have been reserved for women of Scheduled Castes.
In Kottanad, Ward-X (Vellayil) has been reserved for SC women. Since this is the only such reserved ward there, the winner will become the panchayat president by default. Hence, parties which cannot find a suitable local nominee are scouring for SC women candidates even in other unreserved wards, as a standby option. Konni, Ward-II (Kizhakkupuram) has been reserved for SC women, while Ward XVII (Mammood) is reserved for SC. The Ward XI (Kannanumannu) is reserved for SC women in Ranni-Perinad grama panchayat, while the president’s post in Konni block panchayat is also tagged for SC.
