Violence, terrorizing and unlawful practices marked the Block Pramukh elections in Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP won the most number of seats on in the Block Pramukh Elections in UP on July 10. However, the Block Pramukh elections are the Zilla Parishad Elections in India.
On the other hand, the whole country expressed concern when videos of violence and intimidation spread like wild fire. Women were beaten, stripped off their sarees, to stop them from submitting their nomination papers.
Interestingly, BJP won 334 out of 825 seats, even before the elections. BJP won them uncontested. This implies that even without a single vote, 40% of the seats were declared in favor of BJP.
The level of unlawful practices, intimidation and violence can be understood as large number of seats were uncontested.
The largest state in the country also has largest number of political parties there to contest. But, the question here is how did BJP win in the uncontested seats?
The answer is there was no direct polling by the people. The leaders were unanimously elected. This proves that it is a case of intimidation as there is high level of politicization and intense political rivalry in Uttar Pradesh.
Obviously, we can never assume that all these people who are elected have won through their own virtue or the respect from the people.
The nomination papers were snatched and torn, potential contestants harried, cases of intimidation, beatings and firings describe the honesty of the ruling party there.
Moreover, 68 nominations were rejected. 187 nominations were withdrawn due to many reasons which include terrorizing and violence.
Consequently, 334 out of 349 seats were won by BJP supporters.
The question which arises now is if democracy is safe in the hands of these so called uncontested leaders?
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