UP urban local body polls to be held in two phases in May; counting on May 13

The SEC said the voting for mayors and 1,420 corporators would take place through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), while the polling for the rest of the posts of Nagar Palika Parishad and Nagar Panchayats would happen through ballot papers.

Notably, 760 local bodies — comprising 17 Municipal Corporations, 199 Nagar Palika Parishad and 544 Nagar Panchayats — will have 17 posts of mayors, 199 posts of Nagar Palika Parishad chairmen and 544 Nagar Panchayat chairmen.

A total of 4.32 crore voters will exercise their franchise to elect 1,420 corporators to Municipal Corporations and 5,327 members to Nagar Panchayats and 7,177 members to Nagar Palikar Parishads.

State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar said, “The notification for the next Urban Local Body polls is being issued, according to which the polling in 760 local bodies will take place in two phases. The first phase of polling will be on May 4 and the second phase of polling will take place on May 11. With the declaration of this notification, the Model Code of Conduct comes into place across the state.”

“The polling in 17 Municipal Corporations i.e. the voting for mayors and corporators will be done through EVMs, while the voting for the remaining Nagar Palika Parishad and Nagar Panchayats will take place through ballot papers,” said Kumar.

The SEC further said that the number of local bodies, as compared to the 2017 elections, has increased by 107, which include one Municipal Corporation and one Nagar Palikar Parishad and 105 new Nagar Panchayats.

Similarly, the number of voters has also increased by 96.33 lakh and the total number of posts, too, has increased by 2,024 as compared to the 2017 elections.

As the elections will take place in two phases, 18 divisions of the state have been divided into two — nine divisions per phase.

The first phase of polling will take place in nine divisions comprising 37 districts, including Saharanpur, Moradabad, Agra, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Devipatan, Gorakhpur, and Varanasi, among others, on May 4.

In the second phase, the polling in the other nine divisions, comprising 38 districts, including Meerut, Bareilly, Aligarh, Kanpur, Chitrakoot, Ayodhya, Basti, Azamgarh and Mirzapur, among others, will take place on May 11.

According to the notification, the nominations for the first phase will be filed between April 11 and 17, while the scrutiny of papers will be done on April 18 and the nominations can be withdrawn on April 20. For the second phase, nominations will be filed between April 17 and 24, while the papers can be withdrawn on April 27.

The counting for both phases will take place on May 13.

Kumar said, “The entire election process will take place under the deployment of the state police force. But if required, \the Commission may request the deployment of central forces as well. Besides, the district magistrates have been asked to identify sensitive booths to fix surveillance cameras.”

The announcement of the dates for the Urban Local Body elections in Uttar Pradesh was delayed due to the OBC reservation issue. As a draft reservation issued in December last year was challenged in court, the state formed a five-member commission to study the representation of OBC in the Urban Local Body. The panel submitted its report last month, which was then submitted to the court. After the court’s consent, the state government issued a draft reservation of posts for the local body polls nine days ago, seeking objections.

Before the announcement of poll dates by the State Election Commission, the Uttar Pradesh Urban Development Department issued the final reservation notification, according to which out of 17 mayoral seats, nine would be reserved — one for the Scheduled Caste category in Jhansi, one for Scheduled Caste woman — Agra, two for OBC woman — Shahjahanpur and Firozabad, two for OBC category — Saharanpur and Meerut, and three for women — Lucknow, Kanpur and Ghaziabad.