Democracy is on display with its various nuances in old united Adilabad district during the ongoing panchayat election, thanks to a good number of gram panchayats trying for unanimity in selection of candidates for the post of sarpanch and upa sarpanch instead of a contest of the ballot. While some gram panchayats have defeated the spirit of democracy by auctioning the post of sarpanch some others have informally used the ballot to select a candidate.
Take the example of Tamsha gram panchayat in Nirmal district where the village development committee on Wednesday held an informal election using a ballot paper to narrow down the choice to one aspirant for the post of sarpanch out of the four. The ‘elected’ candidate filed the nomination subsequently as the election here is being held in the first phase.
The Adivasis of Loddiguda in Lingapur mandal of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district went through the same motion on the previous day. They too had to select from among four aspirants but the election in the gram panchayat will be held in the third phase.
The gram panchayats of Tippa, Hathigutta, Chichdhari and Allikhori in Adilabad mandal saw a single nomination being filed on the last date.
This ensures unanimous election of sarpanch in these panchayats.
There are reports from some gram panchayats that the post of sarpanch was auctioned even for a price as high as ₹ 5 lakh. The money would go to respective village development committee.
