The Yogi Adityanath government has decided to allow village panchayat chiefs, whose five-year terms ended on Tuesday, to continue as administrators for at least six months, in an apparent bid to keep them in good humour before the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled next year.

The government was expected to hold panchayat elections earlier this month, but no notification has been issued announcing polls. Sources said the government could extend the terms of the gram pradhans by another six months, claiming that through such a move, the BJP expected to keep its dominance intact at the rural level in the run-up to the Assembly polls.

The gram pradhans, also called panchayat pradhans, will continue to wield all administrative and financial powers as administrators.

“They may extend the panchayat pradhans’ terms by another six months in November so that when Uttar Pradesh votes in the Assembly elections in April next year, the BJP retains its dominance in rural areas,” a panchayat department official said on the condition of anonymity.

While there were occasions in the past when assistant development officers were designated as administrators of the panchayats, it is the first time in the state that panchayat pradhans will continue to head the rural administration after the end of their terms.

Asked why rural elections had not been held, panchayati raj minister O.P. Rajbhar said: “It will be held in the future. But we took the decision to retain the panchayat pradhans as administrators to ensure that development work in the villages is not hampered.”

Satyapal Singh, the president of the Rashtriya Panchayati Raj Gram Pradhan Sangathan, said: “Bureaucrats didn’t want an election because they wanted to control the panchayats through their own officials as administrators. But the panchayat pradhans are happy with the new arrangement because the development work they have started will continue.”

Although panchayat elections are not held on the symbols of political parties, the BJP had claimed in 2021 that it had won 65 per cent of the 57,694 village panchayats in the state. Sources said a large number of the winners were not associated with any political party, but the BJP had ensured their allegiance as the budget allocation for the rural bodies is done by the government. The sources claimed that the panchayat pradhans associated with the ruling dispensation get the maximum projects sanctioned.

Siddhu Paswan, the gram pradhan of the Gawan panchayat in Gorakhpur district, said: “The current government has allocated more funds to the panchayats than any other before it. We will be able to complete our projects after becoming administrators.”