BHUBANESWAR: With the state government already having issued the gazette notification paving the way for the announcement of schedule for the three-tier panchayat election, various political parties are also gearing up to fine-tune their respective strategies for the rural polls.
Though these polls, except for the post of zilla parishad, are not fought on party lines, all the three major political parties — BJD, BJP and Congress — have started putting their respective houses in order. After all, the outcome of the rural polls will set the tone for the general elections scheduled to be held in 2024.
On Monday, the State Election Commission (SEC) will meet the representatives of various political parties. The meeting is likely to revolve around conducting the panchayat polls in strict adherence to the Covid-19 protocols.
The ruling BJD seems to be ahead in poll preparations with senior party leaders, including ministers, MPs and MLAs making whirlwind tours of different assembly constituencies to conduct public meetings and to take stock of the party’s strength.
While chief minister Naveen Patnaik recently released a cash assistance of Rs 3,000 each for house repair for the 31 lakh beneficiaries of the state’s rural housing scheme, party MPs and MLAs are drumming up support by visiting different villages and pasting stickers on the houses of beneficiaries.
BJD’s Rajya Sabha member Subash Singh said the ruling party is fully prepared to fight the rural polls. “Our party has already conducted meetings at the constituency, block and zilla parishad-zone level. The workers of the frontal organisations of our party have been assigned the task of popularising the different welfare measures of the state government,” he added.
Party insiders said BJD, which has announced that it would field at least 40% OBC candidates, has already shortlisted at least three candidates for each of the zilla parishad zone, while the final list will be out after the announcement of the poll schedule.
Emphasising on free and fair elections, BJP leader Prithiviraj Harichandan said the party has also shortlisted candidates for zilla parishad and other affiliated posts at the block-level, which will be finalised by the state committee soon.
