BJP Set to Retain Power in Uttar Pradesh 2022 Elections

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The current ruling party in Uttar Pradesh (UP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is touted to win the upcoming 2022 UP Legislative Assembly elections again and achieve majority number of seats comfortably. BJP is projected to win 240-250 out of the total 403 seats in the UP Legislative Assembly according to a opinion poll conducted by Times Now-Polstrat in November. According to the opinion polls, the Samajwadi Party & its allies will be second to the NDA alliance led by BJP, while Bahujan Samajwadi Party is slated to lose a fair chunk of its votes to the NDA & SP.

The Indian National Congress (INC), led by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is expected to win a sparse 5-10 seats which isn’t any improvement from their situation in the 2017 UP Legislative Assembly Elections. If these and majority of the opinion polls turn out to be true, current UP CM Yogi Adityanath will become the first UP CM to be in power for 2 consecutive terms.

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In their efforts to gain some advantage back in the upcoming UP elections 2022, INC leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra declared that the party would allot 40% of their election tickets to women candidates and the party has been campaigning heavily with women being their primary target audience. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has made a lot of huge promises to the women of UP like – free smartphones & 2-wheelers for college going girls, 3 LPG-cylinders free for women, a ₹10,000 honorarium every month to Anganwadi & ASHA workers, additional old-age widow pension of ₹1,000 per month and free travel for women in government buses.

Congress is targeting the women voters to get a healthy share of votes, the party is soon going to launch a 100-day PR campaign to garner support of these women voters leading with the slogan – “Ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon” to empower women and fight the crimes against women. The social media team of Congress is targeting women as historically there have been slightly higher percentage of women voters in UP than men. INC is targeting 100 seat victories and their social media/PR teams will contact women voters in these districts more than 10 times each by the time the elections roll around.

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Meanwhile, former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav, leader of the SP has promised the farmers of the state that they will be allowed to set up Mandis along the Purvanchal Expressway should his government be voted to power in the forthcoming elections. The ex-CM said the poorer societies of Purvanchal will be greatly helped by this move and the expressway will allow his party to significantly boost the economy of the towns and villages around it.

The Purvanchal Expressway is 341km long and starts at Chaudsarai village in Lucknow district on NH-731, and ends at Hydaria village on NH-31. The expressway also has a 3.2km long airstrip road stretch to facilitate emergency landings & take-off of Indian Air Force planes in cases of emergency.  Currently, the expressway has 6-lanes but with the capacity to be widened to 8-lanes if required in the future. The project of the Purvanchal Expressway cost approximately ₹22,500 crores and was developed to aid economic growth of eastern UP. The expressway connects the districts of Lucknow, Amethi, Barabanki, Prayagraj, Ambedkar Nagar, Ghazipur, Mau, Azamgarh & Sultanpur.

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The Purvanchal Expressway is already a major political factor in the upcoming UP Legislative Elections 2022. As the elections approach, the parties contesting the election are expected to spend upwards of ₹8,000 crores in total for advertising & campaigning efforts. TV-advertising will be the main avenue where the money will be spent and nearly 45% of it will be spent on ads via news media – TV, newspapers, radio etc.

UP gram panchayat elections 2021:

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  • UP Gram Panchayat Elections 2021 has released separate reservation lists for the upcoming three-tier panchayat polls that is to take place in the month of April. An aggregation of 57,207 heads is to be decided by the polls.
  • The election authorities released the reservation list for Varanasi, Kannoj, Rampur, Sambhal, Kasganj, Amethi, Moradabad, Meerut, Ballia, Fatehpur, Hardoi, Ghaziabad, Mirzapur, Ghazipur, Bhadohi, Banda, Pratapgarh, Firozabad, and Agra.
  • The reservation list was issued by the district magistrates whereas the list was finalised by the Panchayat Raj Department yesterday on Wednesday, 03rd of March, 2021.The list will prepare the ground for candidates to know from where they are eligible to fight elections.
  • Earlier, the Allahabad High Court had asked the Uttar Pradesh Election Commission to conduct panchayat elections by 30th April 2021 as it turned down the poll panel’s undertaking to hold the rural civic body polls by May 2021. The HC had noted that as per the mandate of the Constitution, the election of the panchayat should have been conducted on or before January 13, 2021.
  • The tenure for Uttar Pradesh Gram Panchayats and Village panchayat was supposedly end on 25th December, 2020, remarking it as the successful completion of their five years. Therefore, as soon as the tenure got over, the Yogi Adityanath Government released the list for the upcoming three-tiered panchayats. The government also ordered the district administration to take over the panchayat administration, following the assistant development officers to take over the responsibilities of the panchayat administrators of all panchayat bodies.
  • Following the High Court’s decree, the state government put out the reservation policy for the panchayat elections. The government said that reservation by rotation will be put into effect during the panchayat elections.
  • As per the government’s order and higher court of justice, seats shall be reserved for the scheduled caste (SCs), scheduled tribe (STs) and other backward classes (OBCs). Following this, a statement has also been made mandatory that the categories reserved earlier won’t be reserved for the same categories this year.
  • Currently, Uttar Pradesh has:
    • 826 vikaskhands (development blocks)
    • more than 58,000-gram sabhas
    • 7,31,813 wards in the gram sabhas
    • 75 Zila Panchayats
    • 75,855 wards in kshetra panchayats
    • 30,051 wards in 75 zila panchayats.
  • According to the Additional Chief Secretary Officer, the list for the aggregated gram panchayat seats prepared based on the overall population percentage. It shall have 330 seats reserved for the Schedule Caste, 12,045 for the Scheduled Tribes, and 15,712 for OBCs.
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  • Of the 75 Zilla Panchayat Chairmans’ posts, 16 have been reserved for SC candidates (including 6 for women) and 20 OBC candidates (including 7 for women), while from the remaining 39 seats for Zila panchayat chiefs, 13 have been reserved for women, leaving 27 unreserved seats.
  • Among the 826 posts of kshetra panchayat chiefs, five have been reserved for ST candidates, 171 for SC candidates and 223 for OBC candidates.
  • As per the resent news, The UP Government was seen transferring the four divisional commissioners and six district magistrates during Tuesday’s late midnight hour. To this, therefore, the government has changed the district magistrates of Rampur, Badaun, Chitrakoot, Basti, Deoria, and Kanpur Dehat.
  • In addition, even the commissioners of Prayagraj, Bareilly, Meerut and Moradabad divisions were seen being transferred.
  • The following changes have been clearly observed overnight:
  • Surendra Singh (secretary to the chief minister) has been appointed Commissioner of Meerut Division.
  • Shubrant Shukla (special secretary in Chief Minister’s Office) has been posted as the new district magistrate of Chitrakoot.
  • Sanjay Goyal(Relief commissioner) has been posted as commissioner in the Prayagraj division.
  • Aunjaneya Kumar Singh (district magistrate Rampur)is the new commissioner of Moradabad division.
  • R Ramesh (commissioner of Prayagraj) has been transferred as Bareilly commissioner.
  • Deepa Ranjan (additional housing commissioner) is the new district magistrate of Badaun.
  • Ravindra Mandar (municipal commissioner of Vrindavan and Mathura) has been posted as district magistrate Rampur.
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UP Panchayat Elections 2021 preparations have begun

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  • Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Elections is to be held this year in 2021 which remarks the fact that UP CM Yogi Adityanath government is about to complete successful four years in office on March 19.
  • However, the dates for conducting the election have not been announced yet. The seat reservations and their details have been published on the official website of the State Election Commission of Uttar Pradesh: http://www.sec.up.nic.in/site/
  • Heading towards the sooner approaching panchayat elections of Uttar Pradesh 2021, a notice was issued by CDO on behalf of the state government against four zonal magistrates because of their absence during a poll-related meeting. To this, strict actions were taken on these magistrates following the reasons demanded from them for not participating in the meeting conducted by the state for the upcoming UP panchayat election in the state.
  • The following magistrates are as follows:
    • Zonal Magistrate Arvind Kumar Sharma (Executive Engineer)
    • Construction and Sector Magistrate Anil Kumar (Assistant Commissioner Administration)
    • Upendra Singh Chaudhary (Assistant Commissioner Deputy Commissioner Administration)
    • Girish Chandra Mishra (Joint Commissioner Excise).
  • The meeting was held in Varanasi where the CDO issued instructions to make arrangements for drinking water, electricity, toilet ramps etc. at the polling booths. Further discussions took place regarding the procedure of conducting the upcoming panchayat election in the state and the process to manage it.
  • Meanwhile, the meetings and discussions, the Yogi-Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government have introduced a rotational system of reservation for the upcoming three-tier panchayat polls in the state. This means that if a seat was reserved for the candidates from scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribe (ST) and other backward classes in 2015, this time, the seat will not be reserved for them. Instead, the seats for the categories will be reserved on the basis of their population.
  • This reservation by rotation will be implemented in the panchayat elections, Additional Chief Secretary, Panchayati Raj, Manoj Kumar Singh had said.
  • Following the announcement of reservation policy, (SEC) has decided to conduct elections in one district at a time for four posts of Gram Pradhan, Gram Panchayat member, Area and District Panchayat member. The Election Commissioners Ved Prakash Verma and JP Singh, along with State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar will discuss preparations made so far through video conferencing with the Divisional Commissioners and District Magistrates.
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  • Note the following, Uttar Pradesh has:
  • Constituencies:
    • 826 vikaskhands (development blocks)
    • 58,194 gram sabhas.
    • 7,31,813 wards in the gram sabhas
    • 75,855 wards in kshetra panchayats
    • 30,051 wards in 75 zila panchayats.
  • Members:
    • 75 district panchayat presidents (aggregate)
    • 826 block chiefs
    • 3,051 district panchayat members
    • 75,855 area panchayat members
    • 58,194-gram panchayats
    • 7,31,813-gram panchayat members
  • Coming back to the reservation policy, the District Magistrate (DM) will publish the list of reserved seats and their allocation on 2nd of March and 3rd of March, while between 4 and 8 March, objections can be raised in writing before the final list is issued between 10 and 12 March.
  • Cooperative Bank Loan defaulters, will, however not be allowed to contest the forthcoming Panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh. If they are willing to contest, they will have to repay the loan to the Cooperative Society and District Cooperative Bank and also present no dues certificate to contest Panchayat elections.
  • According to the Election Commission, all the party workers, associates, and voters must take the following preventive measures and precautions:
  • Wearing of a good face mask that prominently covers mouth and nose during the election-related activity.
  • No one must be allowed to the provinces that is the polling booths without a proper thermal scanning.
  • Sanitizers shall be made available at all locations.
  • Social distancing shall be maintained as per the extant COVID-19 guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs and state government.
  • There is no reservation on the Gorakhpur district panchayat seat.
  • In Lucknow, seats are reserved for SC women, whereas in Benares, OBC is reserved for women.
  • Zilla Panchayat president will be elected on 25 of the 75 seats, including the parliamentary constituency of Lucknow.
  • There are unreserved seats in 27 districts, including Gorakhpur, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Agra, Mathura, Ayodhya.
  • According to the order of the Allahabad High Court, elections to the panchayats are to be held by 30 April. The state government will complete the reservation process by 17 March. Six days will be given, from 2 March to 8 March, to file an objection.
  • According to the new policy:
  • Districts, regions and gram panchayats with the most population of Scheduled Castes and backward classes will be reserved in rotation.
  • Panchayats, which were reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC) in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, will not be allotted to the Scheduled Castes in this election. Those who have been reserved for backward classes will not be reserved for backward classes.
  • The seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes and women in five elections from 1995 to 2015 will not be reserved for that category this time.

Aggregated constituencies and members in Uttar Pradesh, 2021:

Constituencies:

No. of Vikas Khands (development blocks)826
No. of Gram Sabhas.  58,194
No. of wards in the Gram Sabhas  7,31,813
No. of Zila Panchayats75
No. of Wards in zila panchayats.  30,051
No. of wards in kshetra panchayats  75,855

Members:

No. of district panchayat presidents (aggregate)75
No. of block chiefs826
No. of district panchayat members3051
No. of area panchayat members75855
No. of gram panchayats58194
No. of gram panchayat members731813

Reservation Overview:

CategoriesDistrict Panchayat  Block Chief  Village Panchayat  
Total Posts75      826    58194    
Unreserved27    314    20,268
Female12    113    9739    
OBC27    223    15712    
SC16  171    12045    
ST(unspecified)5  330  
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