My Election Duty as Zonal Magistrate in Panchayat Elections Author Dr. K.S. Kang

My Election Duty as Zonal Magistrate in Panchayat Elections

Author: Dr. K.S. Kang

If my election duty in Panchayat elections 1998 was the most difficult duty of my career then this duty was as easy as a cake walk and there are several reasons for it. In 1998 Panchayat elections I was given the duty of Returning Officer and he had to do everything in the polls right from issuing the notification of  the polls to the declaration of the result of Ward Panchs and Sarpanch and the election of Upsarpanch. And in this election I was in the supervisory job of a Zonal magistrate. Secondly regular staff of Government of Rajasthan in 1998 was on strike so the administration of that time was entirely dependent for conducting the polls successfully either on the employees of Central government like RAPP, Income Tax and the  like or on the employees of autonomous bodies like Municipal committees, Cooperative Societies, Sainik School and  other autonomous bodies So this staff was not trained like regular staff in conducting the polls as it had no such experience. So they had to guided constantly. Thirdly technology had also improved with the betterment of infrastructure facilities like electricity and EVM had replaced paper ballots atleast in the Sarpanch polls. Lastly area given to me in this elections was just outside the municipal limits of the town. The first village of my zone Manpura was the village whose half territory came in municipal limits while just after crossing a road the rural area began. My headquarter was to be at village Semalpura which was hardly 8 kms away from the district headquarter and from here the four lane National Highway to Kota began.

            My zone had seven polling booths. Three polling booths were in the village Manpura while the other four booths were at Semalpura and I was to stay at Rajiv Gandhi Kendra at Semalpura. In fact a new panchayat of Manpura was created for the first time by including the surrounding villages like Suraj Pole, Sirdi and the like. In this poll I was delighted to be introduced to young, active and dynamic lady officers. First of all the head of the school at Semalpura was wife of my colleague. She was very active and everybody praised her for doing a lot for the cause of education particularly women education. Then the subordinate revenue officer was an active lady from Jaipur she was quite active and dynamic in her area and the welfare of the villagers and common man was her topmost concern and the police officer was also a dynamic lady who controlled the situation quite swiftly. There was not much to do as every information was to be provided by Returning Officers. In my zone there were two panchayats Semalpura and Manpura for which polls were held. Everything went off peacefully on the poll and counting and the results of Panchs and Sarpanchs for both the panchayats were announced and we were free by 11.00 p.m and went to bed by midnight. Next day was the election of Upsarpanchs. People of Semalpura acted semnsibly by electing the Upsarpanch unanimously while there were two candidates in fray in Manpura. As Panchayat elections are known for local issues that increases its sensitivity and enhances the stress. In the election both candidates got 6 votes each. As it was a tie so lottery was taken out. One of the candidate had brought seven ward panchs in his vehicle so he was damn sure of winning it. But as it was a tie so lottery was taken out and in that the one was declared as winner. As winning candidate did not belong to that village so police thought of sending him to his home first. So the supporters of other candidate, who belonged to the village thought that their candidate has won, so they started celebrating but when the truth dawned on then that their candidate has lost the election they tried to create some ruckus. Taking precautions Sector Police Officer phoned Police headquarters to send Quick Response Team so that the polling parties can wind up their work peacefully and they could be transported to district headquarters safely. This team did a flag march in the village so as to restore peace and harmony and polling parties reached safely and after depositing everything we came to our respective houses though it was 9 p.m in the night when I reached my home.