Nayagarh: The post of Zilla Parishad (ZP) chairperson in this district has been reserved for women in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category. In 2017 however, the seat was reserved for women from the general category.
In fact, political activities have intensified after the notification of the draft list for seat reservation of the Panchayat Raj elections a few weeks back.
The ZP Zone 17 in Nuagaon has also been reserved for ST women. All political parties have set their sight on this ZP seat as the ST woman candidate who will be elected will have the maximum chance to become the chairperson. Other elected women candidates can also become the chairperson, but the one elected from the Nuagaon ZP seat has the maximum chance.
Workers and frontline leaders of Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress are all working on strategies to boost their poll prospects in the in ZP seats reserved for women in the upcoming three-tier panchayat elections.
The government has set October 25 as deadline to receive complaints from people and leaders regarding the draft list of reservation of ZP chairman post for ST women. Similarly, the last date for complaints regarding the women-reserved seats has been fixed for Monday.
All the parties have been eagerly waiting for the publication of the final list of seat reservation.
There are 24 ZP zones in the district. Of them, three seats have been reserved for the SC category, two for ST, six for OBC candidates and 13 are unreserved. The 12 ZP seats have been reserved for an equal number of men and women candidates.
PNN