Candidate for Kotia Panchayat alleged to have been lured with Rs.5 Lakh to Withdraw Nomination
Uttam Nayak,Odishabarta
Koraput:Tika Gemel,the independent candidate for Zone 1 of Pottangi
Zilla Parishad which consists of Kotia Panchayat along with another six panchayats of the block , has accused the all-party committee in Koraput district of trying to lure her with a sum of Rs.5 lakh to stay away from the ZP elections. On the other hand, refusing to accept the allegations, Jairam Pangi, a member of the All-Party Committee and a senior BJP leader, has accused some Andhra Pradesh brokers playing game to destabilise the peaceful move by the all party committee to avoid election in Kotia Panchayat by selecting Mamata Jani as the only candidate from all political parties in the block . Sabina Budia,another independent candidate has withdrawn her candidature , while Mamata Jani and Tikai Gemel are contesting the elections .
All attempts by Congress, BJD and BJP leaders to pursue Tikai Gemel to withdraw her candidature so as to pave the way for uncontested selection of Mamata for the zilla Parishad seat . While 3 pm was the official deadline for withdrawing election nomination papers by candidates , for some reason the special deadline was extended by half an hour at Sub collector office in Koraput . Taking advantage of this extended deadline, senior leaders of the all-party committee made every effort to put Mamata and Tikai face-to-face in the Koraput sub-collector office to come to an understanding . But in the end, Tikai refused to change her stand and remained in the fray posing a serious concern for all the major political parties of the district . It might be recalled that a decision was taken at the all-party meeting a couple of days back to select all -party candidates for the Zilla Parishad seat involving Kotia Panchayat , starting with the ward members of Kotia Panchayat. While all 13 ward members were elected unopposed as per the decision, two Sarpanch candidates withdrew their nominations today leaving seven candidates to uphold their candidatures for the post of Kotia Panchayat Sarpanch. It remains to be seen whether the 5197 common voters of Kotia Panchayat would support the all-party candidate or the independent candidate.
