BJP wins 75% seats uncontested in Dadra, Daman local polls; Cong moves Bombay HC over ‘conspiracy’

Of the 48 district panchayat seats across the UT, the BJP won 35 uncontested, up from nine five years ago; 30 of 44 gram panchayat seats, and on 26 of 30 municipality seats. In 2020, as per the Form 21B (official document for declaring an uncontested election) on the UT website, of the 150 gram panchayat seats, 84 were won uncontested, including 47 bagged by Independents. The political affiliations of the others were not mentioned on the remaining forms. However, in the seats in which elections were held on November 8, 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the BJP won all the bodies, party insiders said.

According to sources in the UT administration’s Election Department, BJP candidates were declared uncontested winners in 10 out of 16 seats in Daman district panchayat; in 12 out of 15 wards in Daman municipality; and 10 out of 16 gram panchayats. In Diu, of the eight district panchayat seats, BJP candidates were declared the winners in five, and their sarpanch won the Zolawadi and Bucharwada gram panchayats. In the Dadra and Nagar Haveli district panchayat. BJP candidates were declared uncontested winners in 20 out of 26 seats; 14 out of 15 municipality wards; and 18 out of 26 gram panchayats. Election department officials said victory certificates were handed out to the BJP candidates on October 24 and 25.

“We started preparations three months ago and our party leaders and workers visited 50 panchayats and 43 municipal seats and campaigned. Before the election, the BJP conducted a survey and compiled a list of people willing to contest. A list of such candidates was prepared and, based on their work and public contacts, along with a good image, we allocated tickets,” said Agaria.

All India Congress Committee’s (AICC) in-charge for the Union Territory, Manikrao Thakre, told The Indian Express that the rejection of the nomination papers of 80% of his party’s candidates was part of a “conspiracy”.

“The first thing is they gave us seven days to fill the nomination forms, starting on October 10, when the polls were announced. For the first two days, they didn’t make the forms available. Then, they didn’t give a list of required documents, though we kept asking. On October 14-15, when our candidates got to know which documents had to be submitted, the officials were sent away on the pretext of election training. We formed a committee of lawyers who checked the papers and found no problem,” he said.

Thakre alleged that the venue for form scrutiny was changed at the last minute, causing panic. “When they reached the Collector’s office, they were told their papers were rejected. And not just the Congress, non-BJP candidates, including Independents, also faced the same action. Not a single BJP form was rejected.”

Thackeray said of the 21 nominations the Congress filed for the district panchayat polls, only four were considered valid, while 11 of 12 nominations for municipal council elections were rejected.

“The BJP has hijacked the election process in the Union Territory, taking help from election department officials,” alleged local Congress leader Prabhu Tokiya, who addressed a press conference in Delhi along with Thakre on October 26. “We have lodged a complaint with the Election Commission and filed a petition in the Bombay High Court, challenging the rejection of the forms during the election process.”

Agaria said the Congress had the right to go to court and it was “up to the court to decide”.

Among the notable names whose nominations were rejected are the wife and daughter of Daman and Diu’s independent MP Umesh Patel who had filed the nomination for the district panchayat polls. While Shweta Patel, 45, had filed the forms for the seats of Bhimpore and Magarwada,  Divyanshi, 23, filed her nomination for Varkund and Damanwada. “My wife applied for the withdrawal of her nomination from Bhimpore and my daughter from Varkund. However, the election officials did not accept it and rejected both their forms,” said Patel.

“The BJP has killed democracy,” said the MP. “They have used the power of election officials and snatched away people’s right to vote and candidates’ right to contest elections. We have filed a complaint with the EC. The election department rejected the forms of independent candidates over minor mistakes.”

The director of panchayat and municipal elections in the UT, Nikhil Desai, told The Indian Express, “There are norms for filing nomination forms for the candidate before the election branch officer. If these norms are not met, the electoral officer, while evaluating the nomination forms, can reject the candidature. The candidates can also avail legal remedies anytime.”

Congress candidate Chandrka Rajesh Vagh, whose nomination for the district panchayat election in Ward 9 in Dadra and Nagar Haveli was rejected, told Express, “After learning my form had been rejected due to a document problem, I went to the election officer there with original documents. The officials did not try to see my documents … The election process in the Union Territory is undemocratic, which cannot be tolerated. One of my friends, Poornima Vaghli, turned up a little late on the last day of filing the nomination for Ward 9, but was not allowed to submit the form, though she was late by only five minutes.”

This is the first local body election since Dadra and Nagar Haveli MP Mohan Delkar’s death by alleged suicide in 2022. In 2020, Delkar, who was an independent MP, quit the Congress and moved to the Janata Dal (United). Several of the candidates he backed won in the district and gram panchayat elections, while the BJP bagged the Silvassa municipality.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, while Delkar’s wife Kalaben won from Dadra and Nagar Haveli on a BJP ticket, his loyalists and the winning candidates from the JD(U) moved to the BJP.

— With Asad Rehman in Delhi

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