Curtains came down on the pointless and insignificant Zilla Panchayat elections which were held in controversial circumstances and the validity of which will be decided by the High Court that is seized of the matter. With the entire state machinery at its beck and call it is no wonder that the BJP comfortably cruised through. It was not a level playing field as the BJP candidates unofficially knew the polling date well in advance. The various political parties would have to introspect on the results. The BJP would also have to do a post-mortem as to why some of its strongholds crashed while in some it just scraped through and as to why its plot failed to win by tactfully making the party symbol Lotus in some constituencies invisible on the ballot paper. These ZP elections will have no impact on the 2022 Assembly polls as that would be a different ball game altogether. Nothing can and should be read into the outcome of this futile election. Many people saw this election as a waste of time and money, a danger to their health and gross disrespect to the safety and health of the people due to the destructive pandemic. The Government has now once again assured that more powers would be devolved to the ZPs. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. We have for the last many years been repeatedly promised that mining and the very vital Mhadei issue will be resolved very soon. But that day does not seem to dawn. So, any assurances made are a reality only when it’s all done and dusted.
