Rabindranath Biswas
Diglipur, March 24: The ceremony of oath of office for newly elected panchayat representatives of Gram Panchayat Subashgram was held in the Panchayat’s Hall today. As per common practice, election of Up-Pradhan is conducted before the oath taking ceremony; the business in this regard was to transact as per usual norms. As per report, however, a hurdle cropped up when two names- one Mr. Bijoy Mallick (INC) and second Mr. A. Elanchezhian (INC) were proposed for Up-Pradhan by two Ward Members of the same party i.e. INC.
Since two Up-Pradhans can’t be elected, the Assistant Commissioner, Diglipur took prompt decision to conduct an election for the post. The Tehsildar and the Block Development Officer, Diglipur were present there to assist the Assistant Commissioner. Necessary arrangements were soon done to conduct the election. Ballot papers were instrumental in electing the Up-Pradhan.
Altogether 14 votes were cast in which 13 were of Ward Members (11 INC and 2 BJP) and one vote was from the Pradhan. After casting of votes, the ballot papers were counted in front of the people present there in the hall in which 11 votes were cast in favour of Mr. A. Elanchezhian whereas merely 3 votes fell in Mr. Bijoy Mallick’s favour. Thus A. Elanchezhian stood victorious by 8 votes and elected as the Up-Pradhan of Gram Panchayat Subhashgram for a term of 5 years. Hereafter PR Singa Ram took oath of office as Pradhan which was followed by the oath of the Up-Pradhan. Ward members took oath of office at the end. Oath was administered by Mr. Ankit Yadav (IAS), Assistant Commissioner, Diglipur.
Before the conclusion of the oath taking ceremony, the Assistant Commissioner was honoured with a shawl by the Pradhan who then assured the residents of Subhashgram Constituency of delivering on his promises and living up to their expectations, a source said.
