Cantt poll 'campaign' begins

PUNE: The upcoming elections to the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) has taken an interesting turn with leaders of most political parties demanding holding of the polls on official party lines with one candidate of each party being allotted the official party symbol.
Cantonment elections across the country are conducted on a non-party basis and this practice has been adhered to over the past six decades since independence.Yet, according to senior Pune Cantonment Board officials, contrary to the party leaders' expectations, if the defence estate officer's (DEO) office in New Delhi has its way, the upcoming polls would also follow the established pattern of party-less polling.
The main complaint of the political workers against the existing party-less elections are two-fold. They say that besides making the elections dull due to lack of competitiveness among parties, lack of official party candidates also hampers functioning of party units in a cohesive manner because more than one candidate from the same
party gets a chance to stand from the same ward without inviting the wrath of official party hierarchy.
Vijay Jadhav, cantonment unit chief of Congress, told TOI on Monday that holding party-less elections to cantonment boards has lost its objective with the proliferation of democratic ideas among citizens of all categories.
"The British enacted the old laws with the stated aim of keeping army barracks away from political intrigues. But in a democratic India, residents of cantonments should also be able to chose a party of their preference just like residents living under municipal bodies and panchayats," Jadhav said.
The Congress has sent memoranda to the defence minister's office and the DEO's office, besides a petition to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi demanding elections on party lines and with official party symbols.
Shiv Sena chief of Pune Cantonment, Atul Gondkar termed the existing law as archaic. "It is the citizens of civilian areas in the cantonments who elect civilian representatives. We are not asking that army representatives should be card-carrying members," he said.
Other leaders including Dilip Giramkar of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Popat Gaikwad of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Pravin Gade of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also concurred with the view.
"Without official party candidates the entire exercise is turned into a flop show," Gaikwad said. According to Gade, besides issues of development, ideology also plays an important role during any election and party-less polls leave no space for that.
Despite all the hype generated by the local party workers, chances of elections being held with official party symbols remain slim. S.K. Sardana, PCB chief executive officer, said party-less elections are there to stay.
"Although the matter is something for the defence ministry to decide, I see slim chances that their demands will be accepted."
Sardana said the Cantonments Act 2006 contains no changes from the superseded act of 1924, according to which elections to all cantonments are done compulsorily on a non-partisan basis.
Netraprakash Bhog, local advocate and expert on cantonment laws, termed the party leaders' demand as a political gimmick. "They talk of ideology and party as if everywhere parties have brought in prosperity after winning majority
in local bodies."
Elections with party symbols will bring out all the negative elements of crony politics and reduce the impartial character of the cantonments' structure of local governance, besides being a violation of the Cantonments Act, Bhog added.