Bhopal: State Election Commission seeks notification on delimitation of seats

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): After Supreme Courtís directive to the State Election Commission (SEC) to issue notification for Panchayat polls within two weeks without OBC reservation, the State Election Commissioner Basant Pratap Singh said that the commission was all set to conduct elections and was waiting for government to issue notification on delimitation of seats.

The final electoral list has been published. All other arrangements have been made by SEC to conduct panchayat polls. We are studying the SC order and can comment after going through it, said BP Singh.

A meeting of all officials of the State Election Commission has been convened on Wednesday. SEC has also asked the state government to issue notification regarding delimitation of seats so that SEC can begin the process.

State government is expected to issue notification within a day or two, a senior SEC official said requesting anonymity. The official also said that the elections would be held without OBC reservation wherein 20% seats will be reserved for ST and 16% for the SC candidates.

In Tuesday's order, the apex court directed SEC to go by the delimitation of wards that existed on the day the vacancies were created or before the amendments were brought into force in 2022.

Ordinance took matter to court

On December 4, 2021, SEC announced polling for 859 posts of district panchayats in all the 52 districts, 6,727 posts under 313 janpad panchayats, sarpanchs of 22,581 village panchayats and 3,62,754 posts of panchs in three phases on January 6, 28 and February 13, 2022.

On December 17, the apex court ordered the state election commission to stay all local body polling on OBC reserve seats and re-notify them under general category. On December 26, the state government withdrew the ordinance on panchayat polls and two days later SEC terminated panchayat polls.

Published on: Wednesday, May 11, 2022, 01:39 AM IST