AGARTALA, May 5 (TIWN): The ruling CPM has begun selection of candidates for the upcoming three-tier Panchayat elections scheduled to be held in July next, according to party sources.
All the local committees have been asked to submit list of candidates for the Panchayat level before the party’s district/ divisional units to scrutinize party nominees. As part of precautionary measures, the party has taken steps to prevent ‘entry’ of undesirable elements in the final list for Panchayat nominees.

While district/ divisional committees of Unakoti district would take decision on the party nominees for North district, the party units of North district would suggest/ finalize names for the election for Unakoti district.

The Melartmath authority has prescribed some guidelines for choosing party nominees. According to the guideline, honest, educated and undisputed faces must be given priority while selecting party nominees to check the alleged corruption or malpractice at the grass-root level.

And, those who have been in the ‘power’ for long and in the headline for wrong reasons should be avoided as much as possible. “The CPM wants honest, educated and dedicated people to get elected in the Panchayat to speed up development activities at the village level”, said a senior party leader.

However, the party has been struggling to gather names of women candidates for the upcoming Panchayat elections. Of the total seats, 50 percent has been reserved for the women making the selection process little bit harder for the party leadership.

All 591 Gram Panchayats, 35 Panchayat Samity and 8 Zilla Parishad All gram panchayats of the state are expected to go to polls in July.