Zila Parisad

The 73rd (panchayati raj) amendment to the Constitution of India mandates the transfer of decision-making powers and resources in rural areas to local democratic bodies called panchayats. It aims at giving women, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes wider representation. The amendment was a revolutionary step in enabling true local self-governance. However, the level of progress made by different states towards this goal varies.

After a gap of 32 years, the three-tier Panchayat elections were finally concluded Jharkhand, generating tremendous enthusiasm and participation at the grassroots with more than 70% polling and significant participation of women and youth. It also saw the enthusiastic participation of the backward classes and especially the tribal people in the scheduled regions. The election took place in November-December last year in 5 segments, the last segment of which concluded on 24 December 2011 and all the results were declared by 30 December 2011. CPI (ML) actively intervened and participated in this important political struggle as a fighting communist force in Jharkhand. We registered victories in 20 Zila Parishad seats, 139 seats in the Panchayat Samitis (constituted at the block levels) along with 135 directly elected posts of Mukhiyas and more than 800 wards in the panchayats.
In the Zila Parishads, we won 9 seats in Giridih, 5 in Gumla, 2 in Koderma and 1 each in Latehar, Ramgarh, Hazaribagh and Dhanbad. In Giridih district, besides the 9 seats, we also registered wins in 66 Panchayat committee member posts and 45 mukhiya posts. Similarly in Garhwa, besides the 5 seats in the Zila parishad, we registered wins in 20 Panchayat committee member posts and 18 mukhiya posts.
In terms of the Legislative Assembly segments, we won 3 Zila Parishad seats in the Bagodar Assembly region, 4 seats in Rajdhanwar and 4 seats in Bhavnathpur. From the perspective of Koderma parliamentary seat, we won 11 seats in the Zila Parishads and at least one seat in the Zila Parishads of each of the six assembly areas in this constituency.
In the tribal-dominated scheduled areas, especially, Deoghar, Dumka, Ranchi, Lohardagga, Gumla, we had an organised participation, but could not win any seat in the zila parishad regions, but we finished second in two places. However in these districts too, we did win several posts in the panchayat samitis and wards and also mukhiya posts. In fact, in some panchayats of Ranchi and Dumka districts where we had launched determined struggles against corporate land grab and displacement, our wins are noteworthy. For example, in Haripur Panchayat of Shikaripada block, which is the area of our intense and determined struggle against land grab by the Jindal corporation, we registered wins in all the ward posts, mukhiya posts, and panchayat samiti posts.
During January-February 2011, the next stage of indirect elections of Zila Parishad chairpersons and deputy chairpersons, Panchayat Samiti head and deputy head and deputy head of the Panchayats will be done by the elected representative in the respective bodies. Relying on our independent strength and exploring options for a united front based on our core principles, we will try to intervene positively in this process. On the basis of primary estimates, we will fight for the Zila Parishad chairperson posts in Giridih, Garhwa and Koderma. Other than this, in 4-5 districts, we will try to fight for the post of Panchayat Samiti pramukhs in 10-12 blocks. In these non-party