U.P. Panchayat poll: Is BJP looking to bypass the semi final?

“Before May, we could get work of ₹5 lakh done at the Gram Sabha level. Now, for even ₹10 lakh worth of work, we need approval from the district administration,” says a village Pradhan from Kasganj district in Uttar Pradesh, citing the delay in local body elections in the State.The Allahabad High Court’s directive to the Uttar Pradesh government and the State Election Commission (SEC) to complete the three-tier panchayat elections within three months has sparked conversations in village chaupals.The State government had deferred the elections, due after the previous term expired in May 2026, to await a report from the Dedicated Backward Classes Commission on OBC reservations. The government put an interim arrangement in place where the outgoing Gram Pradhans are temporarily functioning as administrators until the new elected bodies take charge.However, the High Court ruled that the polls cannot be delayed past constitutional limits and must proceed under the existing 27% OBC reservation framework. The figure comes from the previous exercise before the 2021 polls, when, instead of a triple-test survey that investigates political backwardness, the State conducted a rapid survey to estimate the OBC population for reservation purposes.Political observers and opposition leaders argued that the State government knew the May 2026 expiration date and could have set up the commission months, or even a year, in advance to prevent a governance vacuum. They reminded the court that the Supreme Court-mandated “triple test” formula for providing Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservations in local body elections has been in place since 2010 and was made mandatory by the Supreme Court in 2021.Welcoming the High Court order, Panchayati Raj Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar said the State is ready to hold the polls. “The High Court has issued its order; the Backward Classes Commission should take care of the matter. What do we have to do? We are ready to comply with the order. Once the Commission’s report is submitted, why would there be any need to approach the Supreme Court?,” he said in a media conference.However, Rashtriya Panchayatiraj Gram Pradhan Sangathan (RPGPS), an organisation that advocates for the rights of village heads and Panchayati Raj institutions, said it would challenge the order in the Supreme Court because the court requires reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) against its triple test formula, which says if the Triple Test requirements (including forming a dedicated commission) are not met, the seats reserved for OBCs must be treated as unreserved/open category seats.It further claimed a significant discrepancy between voter lists prepared for panchayat elections and those for assembly polls. “Abhi Gaon ki satta Gaon ke haath main hai (At present the power of the village is in the hands of villagers), said Akhilesh Singh, national president of RPGPS. He pointed out that this was the first time gram pradhans have been made administrators after their tenures expired to manage routine affairs. “Hence, we should not rush into the election process that harms rural governance by trying to bypass incomplete voter rolls and ongoing OBC triple test surveys,” he said.Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav, Congress MP Tanuj Punia, and AAP leader Sanjay Singh have also flagged discrepancies in voter lists. While several Indian states borrow, sync, or adopt the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) master voter list for local elections, U.P. is one of the few exceptions, strictly maintaining its own independent electoral rolls for local body polls.A leader of the Primary School Teachers’ union, associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), said that when SIR was presented as a panacea for all ills, it would have been better to work on a common voter list. “At present, there are separate BLOs for the two rolls. It means more work for teachers in the Census year, and politically it creates an impression that there is something wrong with the enumeration process when everyone knows that the two lists cannot be completely aligned.”Sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RDL) say the Panchayat elections were put on the back burner because the ruling dispensation didn’t want to create “bad blood amidst its rural cadre in the election year.”While U.P. panchayat elections are fought without official party symbols, they heavily influence grassroots politics. When a political party backs a specific candidate, parties feel the rejected contender and his supporters may turn against it in subsequent assembly elections. “It is a well-recognised dynamic in rural politics, but you have to live with it, and the panchayat poll is considered a kind of semi-final,” said a hopeful with BJP links. “It seems the party wants to go straight into the final,” he remarked.An RLD insider said there is meaningful silence on the ground because people know the government is not in a mood to conduct Panchayat polls before the Assembly elections. “Had it been conducted in May, we were ready, but now with little gap between the two polls it is neither practically nor politically viable,” he said.Alleging that the State government deliberately delayed the process because it doesn’t want to face the anger of its core support base, Samajwadi Party’s national spokesperson Abdul Hafiz Gandhi said that “UGC guidelines, theft in donations to Ram Temple and paper leaks created an impression against the BJP, threatening its upper-caste vote.”Further, citing newspaper reports from the 2021 elections, Mr. Gandhi said SP-supported candidates outperformed BJP-supported ones in Zila Panchayat polls. “I assume it is this fear that has caused the delay, but still I urge the BJP-led government to clarify the reasons and ensure that the entire electoral process, including reservation, is completed within the court-mandated period.”Meanwhile, at a meeting in Ghaziabad, CM Yogi Adityanath projected the upcoming MLC election for teacher and graduate constituencies as the semi-final.