WB panchayat poll results signal change of mindset: BJP

The vote against the ruling CPI(M) in many areas during the recent panchayat polls in West Bengal despite "threats and attrocities" is a "very good signal", senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi has said.

The vote against the ruling CPI(M) in many areas during the recent panchayat polls in West Bengal despite “threats and attrocities” is a “very good signal”, senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi has said.

“It’s a very good signal in a democracy that has been reflected through the people’s mandate against atrocities by the major ruling party in the recent panchayat polls,” the former Union HRD minister said at a seminar India today: In the perspective of panchayat polls in Kolkata.

Joshi claimed the political hegemony over the three-tier panchayati raj system, which prevailed before the recent panchayat polls in the eastern state, was more dangerous than the prevalence of caste system in states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

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“Control of a panchayat by a caste remains confined within a specified area (in states like Bihar, UP) but political control over any system has wider ramification,” Joshi observed.

Welcoming Panchayati Raj system in the country as an institution, Joshi said this system was prevalent and far more resilient in our country even centuries back.

But the way democracy was progressing in our country it was very difficult for effective implementation of decentralisation of power, Joshi said and urged all parties to consider how this could be effected through structural changes for development at the grassroots.