Zila panchayat chairman polls: BJP set to bag 12 districts unopposed in Uttar Pradesh

LUCKNOW: BJP-backed candidates are set to win zila panchayat chairman elections unopposed in at least 12 districts, including Gorakhpur and Varanasi after candidates backed by the Opposition failed to file nominations or their papers were rejected till the 3pm deadline on Saturday.
However, they would be officially declared winners on June 29 — last day of withdrawal of nominations — before scheduled elections on July 3.BJP-supported nominees got a cakewalk in Gorakhpur, Gonda, Balrampur, Shravasti, Ghaziabad, Chitrakoot, Moradabad, Jhansi, Mau and Bulandshahr and came out trumps in Varanasi and Meerut after SP candidates’ papers were rejected.
In CM Yogi Adityanath’s turf Gorakhpur, BJP candidate Sadhna Singh, daughter-in-law of late chief minister Veer Bahadur Singh, is all set to be elected unopposed as zila panchayat chairperson after the SP candidate failed to file her papers, following violent clashes between rival supporters at the collectorate gate.
Varanasi, witnessed a dramatic turn of events in which both sets of nomination papers of the SP-backed candidate, Chanda Yadav, were rejected during scrutiny, paving way for BJP’s Poonam Maurya to bag the chairperson’s post with no rival in fray. Maurya too had filed two sets of papers, but one was found valid, while the other one was junked. In Meerut, Gaurav Chaudhary of BJP was elected unopposed after nominations of SP and RLD-backed candidate were cancelled.
However, there were hiccups for BJP at Unnao, where party rebel, Arun Singh, filed his nomination as an Independent. Though he preferred to call himself a BJP soldier fighting the SP candidate, Malti Rawat, he was not barred from filing his nomination. And this despite Shakun Singh being declared the official BJP-backed nominee. Earlier, his ticket was cancelled following complaints by the Unnao rape survivor about his ties with Bangarmau MLA Kuldeep Sengar, who was sacked from BJP after his conviction in a rape case.
Shakun Singh filed her nomination on Saturday, 48 hours after being declared the official candidate by BJP, but Arun Singh raised eyebrows after he was accompanied by Unnao MLA Pankaj Gupta’s brother, Neeraj Gupta, to the nomination centre. In another signal of cracks in BJP’s Unnao unit, a viral video showed Unnao MP Sakshi Maharaj greeting Arun Singh. A relative of state minister, Raghvendra Pratap Singh, Singh is a zila panchayat member from Auras ward in Unnao.
Of the 51 zila panchayat members in Unnao, only nine are affiliated to BJP. SP has 19 and BSP has three members and 20 are independents. At least 26 votes are needed to win the election. BJP is yet to issue a formal statement on the Unnao development.