SDF sweeps panchayat polls, improves on 2007 performance

GANGTOK, 05 Nov: The run-up to Panchayat polls 2012 had heated up to a level which had increased speculations on the people’s verdict sealed in EVMs which were opened for counting today. Substantially more Zilla and Panchayat wards went to polls on 03 November 2012 than were required in the last elections held in 2007. Any hopes of Opposition-backed Independents making any dent in the hustings were however misplaced as the SDF went on to improve even further on its 2007 performance, blanking out Independents completely from two districts at the Zilla level and holding them to the 2007 tally in the remaining two.
The ruling Front has secured 103 of 108 Zilla panchayat wards in the State, leaving only 5 seats for Independent Candidates. In 2007, even though there were slightly fewer Zilla seats at 93, Independents had managed to bag seven. In percentage points, SDF occupies 95.37% of the Zilla wards now against its share of 91.39% in the last panchayat.
Opposition-backed panchayat campaigns failed to break the Independent drought at the Zilla level in West Sikkim and saw their tally fall in South Sikkim. No Independents won a Zilla seat in West district either in 2007 or this time around and in South district Independents saw their tally come down from three in 2007 to One in 2012. And even this is only a technicality in that the Zilla which was bagged by an Independent in South Sikkim had no official SDF candidate and both Independents in the fray were SDF-backed. So the Opposition blanked out here as well. If this is counted in the SDF kitty, then the party’s percentage proportion at Zilla level goes up to 96.29%.
At the ward-level, with 13 results withheld, SDF occupies 884 of the 974 wards which works out to 90.75%. This is a slight dip from its 2007 performance when it has secured 815 of the 889 panchayat wards [91.67%] in the State at that time. Interestingly, the figures for Independents at the ward level have been held up by the 42 wards won by Independents in East district making up nearly half the state-level tally of Independents. Across the State, Independents have won 89 wards. Last time, they had won 75 wards.
Interestingly, while some Opposition political parties [CPM, Congress and SGPP] were officially in the panchayat fray in 2007, this time Congress fielded candidates only on two wards and all others stayed away. Politicking however was visibly more frenetic this time, but to no avail. If anything, the Opposition involvement in the run-up led to Independents not only reducing their numbers in the winning pedestal, but also drastically bringing down their conversion rate [calculated on number of seats won against number contested].
The conversion rate for Independents at the Zilla level this year was 7.14% [they won 5 out of 70 seats contested]. This figure was 11.47% in 2007 when they had managed to win 7 seats out of 61 contested. The conversion rate dip at the ward level is similar with Independents posting a 21.86% conversion rate [winning 89 out of 407 contested] this time against the conversion rate of 26.97% they posted in 2007 when they won 75 out of the 278 panchayat wards they contested.