The Rajasthan panchayat polls were the first time elections were held with minimum educational qualifications.
The panchayat elections in Rajasthan have seen the BJP come out on top. However, the performance does not measure up to the party's landslide victories in the 2013 Assembly and 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The polls were also the first elections that have been held under a new ordinance that mandates some educational qualification for candidates.
The BJP won 20 of the 33 zila parishads that went to the polls, with the Congress taking eight and results awaited for four. The gap however was smaller when it came to the number of panchayat samite members. The BJP new has 2960 to Congress's 2490. A total of 549 independents have also been elected.
The panchayat elections also saw the Congress thin its vote share deficit, clocking two percentage points less than the BJP. This has been an improvement for the party, which had pulled in 11 percentage points less than the BJP in the 2013 Assembly elections. The Congress's vote share has jumped 15 percentage points, while the BJP polled 46 per cent of the total votes cast.
The panchayat election was the first instance that polls have been held under the new ordinance that has put in place minimum educational requirements. Sarpanches have to be Class 8 pass, while zila parishad and panchayat samiti members need to have passed class 10.
The elections saw a change in the social profile of those taking part. 21-year-old Anju Yadav and Vasundhara Chaudhary are examples. Both college students, they have been elected as village heads in Ganganagar District. They say they will rally the youth around their plank of anti-corruption and sanitation.
Another notable result in the panchayat polls has been in Nagaur District's Tarnu village, which has elected an all-woman panchayat. Here the sarpanch, the deputy sarpanch and the 11-member gram panchayat are all women, chosen by consensus.
Sangeet, one of the gram panchayat members, says, "We will work towards educating our girls. Now those without education are of no use. The world is changing."
The educational criteria have also hit the backward classes. Thirteen villages in Rajasthan could not elect a sarpanch, as there was no candidate whom met the educational criteria.
"Ours is an ST seat. This village has a 20 per cent population of the Scheduled Tribe, and its reserved for women. But here, there is no woman who is even fifth-class pass," said Kan Singh Chundawat of Bhadu village near Bhilwara. These villages will now be governed by the District Collector till the Election Commission holds a re-election.