SEC likely to announce final list of candidates on Monday, good start for BJP

Staff Reporter

ITANAGAR, 6 Dec: The State Election Commission (SEC) is likely to announce the final list of candidates for the panchayat and municipal elections on Monday.

The final date for withdrawal of candidature is 7 December (Monday) and candidates will have to deliver their notice of withdrawal of candidature by themselves or through their proposer to the authority at the returning officers’ offices before 3 pm, as per the SEC notification.

While the SEC is yet to release an official and final list, the BJP has made public its current number of uncontested candidates.

The BJP, which is reportedly fielding the highest number of candidates, covering all zilla segments, except for Vijoynagar, announced that it has a total of 75 uncontested zilla parishad members and corporators, two unopposed corporators in the Itanagar Municipal Corporation, and “more than 1,000 gram panchayat members unopposed.”

The National People’s Party has fielded four ZPM candidates in the state and has currently secured the ZPM seat in the Hunli-Desali zilla parishad segment, while 75 out of 119 GPM seats have also been nominated to by the NPP in various districts.

The Congress party said it will wait for the withdrawal of candidature on Monday before making a comment.

It is reported that the Congress is fielding candidates in all the eight wards of the Pasighat Municipal Council and three in the IMC election.

The Janata Dal (United) also claimed 31 seats unopposed in the gram panchayat election in the Baat-Ganga and Borum panchayat segments. The JD (U) is fielding 19 ZPM candidates, over 100 GPM candidates and 18 candidates for the IMC election.

The SEC declared simultaneous elections to the panchayati raj institution and the municipal bodies of Itanagar and Pasighat on 12 November. The polling date has been scheduled for 22 December.