NASHIK: With the deadline to withdraw nominations expiring today (December 4), a clear picture will emerge on what is expected to be a bitter but a largely multi-corned fight to the district panchayat polls. The political atmosphere in the district has heated up amid cold weather. Nominations of as many as 404 candidates have already been rejected in the scrutiny process.
Therefore, 16,602 candidates are in the fray for 2,132 wards of 621 gram panchayats. As the deadline for withdrawal of nominations is ending today, the election’s picture will get all the more clear. There is a fever of Gram Panchayat elections in the district along with the state, and the political atmosphere is hot. Earlier, 17,006 candidates had filed nominations for 621 gram panchayats in 13 talukas of the district.
The deadline for filing nominations was from December 23 to 30. The scrutiny process started on Thursday. Accordingly, applications of 404 candidates from 13 talukas were rejected due to insufficient paperwork and technical difficulties. The highest number of rejected applications were 111 from Malegaon taluka, followed by 86 allocations rejected in Sinnar taluka, while in Igatpuri taluka, applications of all the 147 candidates were adjudged valid. Therefore, nominations of 16,602 candidates for 2132 wards of 621 gram panchayats have been validated.
Meanwhile, the electoral symbol will also be distributed today. Even before that, at many places, the movement to make gram panchayat polls uncontested had gained momentum. Millions of rupees were being bid at many panchayats for the unopposed, unanimous, and election-free contest, and the bid for Umrane gram panchayat had become a topic of discussion all over the state. Although the picture will get cleared only after the withdrawal of papers today, the applications of thousands of candidates for 621 seats have already hinted at a multi-cornered contest.
