Amidst widespread protests against the introduction of the party system in Goa’s Panchayat Raj, the repetition of the history of electoral fraud in the Panchayat elections seems to have gone unnoticed in the recent delimitation of ZP constituencies. While the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha electoral constituencies are demarcated by a neutral institution of the Election Commission of India, the powers to demarcate Panchayat wards and ZP constituencies in Goa continues to wrest with bureaucrats even after the protests against rigging during the 2012 Panchayat elections leading the Government to give an assurance to amend the Panchayat Act and entrust the entire electoral process to the Goa State Election Commission. Having failed to keep its promise, the tailor-made constituencies to suit the electoral designs of the political party in power are now once again glaringly evident in this ZP election. It appears that the will of a defiant and arrogant political cartel in Goa has once again triumphed over the the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India.
It is most unfortunate that when an educationist turned Chief Minister opens his mouth, he more than often invites egg on his face. This is not to state that an IITian as CM was any better. So when the CM defends the holding of ZP elections on party lines by claiming that it would bring stability in the ZPs, he fails to cite any relevant case-study or research to back the same. In fact, it would be worth recalling that a then technocrat CM, in the year 2003, had introduced salaries for Elected Panchayat Representatives claiming that it would abolish corruption in Panchayats. If one goes by the claims of the Government itself then the experience is that corruption has only tripled in the last decade.
As ‘lies have no legs’, the actual hidden agenda behind the recent move to inject the party system in ZP polls gets revealed through news reports when the CM himself says that ‘the party can also establish good contacts with locals through the elected party candidates’. And so, it should not surprise anyone to discover that wherever an Assembly constituency is not under an MLA belonging to the ruling dispensation, the recent ZP constituency has been demarcated in such a manner that the Village Panchayat wards favourable to a political party in power have been selectively picked out and joined with such other wards from two or more surrounding Village Panchayats to make a constituency. This delimitation of constituencies has been done at the last hour to avoid consultations with the stake holders and prevent any legal challenge. If this is not rigging of an election, then what is it?
Perhaps it is because of this manipulation in the electoral process that the political party in government feels confident of doing well in the ZP elections. It is only when the ballot boxes are opened will we know whether the sheep have once again fallen into the clutches of the wolf or, whether the wolf has been beaten at its own game.
