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Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) is contemplating the possibility of holding 29 municipal corporation elections before the ones for rural zilla parishads (ZP) and panchayat samitis (PS), said an election commission official. A video-conference of all municipal commissioners in this regard has been called for on December 4 to discuss issues related to the matter.
“The SEC is mulling whether to take a safe route where clear direction has been given regarding urban local bodies. As per the initial plan, municipal corporation polls were to be held in the third and last phase of local body polls. But now that the apex court has clearly given go ahead to election in all urban bodies, the process can be initiated,” said a senior official from the SEC.
While giving the SEC a go-ahead to conduct local body polls in the state, the Supreme Court last week had not specified the poll procedure for rural local bodies, where the 50 percent reservation limit was crossed.
In Maharashtra, 17 of 32 zilla parishads and 88 of 336 panchayat samitis have crossed the 50 percent political reservation. This gave a green signal for polling in all 29 municipal corporations in the state, despite Nagpur and Chandrapur marginally crossing the 50 percent reservation mark.
As per the new schedule for urban areas, the earlier deadline of November 27 announced for objections to voters’ lists to be submitted
has been changed to December 3. The earlier deadline of December 5 to publish the final voters’ list will now be December 10. “Once the final voters list is announced, the SEC can announce the election anytime. Therefore, the meeting with municipal commissioners is being held on December 4, a day after the deadline for submitting objections. It will give a clear idea how to move further,” the officer said.
The officer said that the direction is to hold election in local bodies which are not crossing 50 percent reservation limit. “In 17 zilla parishads and 88 panchayat samitis, the reservation stands above 50 percent. We have not yet decided on that issue. Holding rest of the ZP and PS elections now would keep the fate of others hanging,” he said, adding that the SEC may prefer to hold urban local body polls earlier than others.
Out of 34 zilla Parishads, 32 have administrators, except for Bhandara and Gondia. The terms of administrators of these two will expire in May 2027. Out of 351 panchayat samitis, 336 have administrators where elections were to be held.
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