Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh): Public representatives and leaders of political parties in Madhya Pradesh are waiting for the urban body and panchayat elections, but the wait seems longer.
Uncertainity looms due to the possibility of a third wave of coronavirus. The Election Commission, in its recent reply to the High Court, is completely prepared for the elections but the government is not.
An application citing the following demands has been made by the Election Commission in the High Court:
* Madhya Pradesh High Court should dispose of all the petitions related to the reservation at the earliest so that the pending elections can be conducted on time.
* The High Court should allow the Election Commission to conduct body and panchayat elections on seats whose reservation-related matters are not pending in the High Court.
* The High Court should direct the government to complete the reservation of District Panchayat Presidents soon because only the government can do the process of reservation.
Earlier, a letter was written on behalf of the Madhya Pradesh government to the Election Commission, saying that the Election Commission should conduct urban body and panchayat elections in Madhya Pradesh after the festival season.
"There is also a possibility that if elections are not announced in Madhya Pradesh by December, then the urban body and panchayat elections in Madhya Pradesh will go for 2022 because the Election Commission has declared the voter list in January 2021. According to the rules, on the basis of that voter list, the election should be announced till December," said Siddharth Seth, Advocate, MP Election Commission.
The tug-of-war between the government and the Election Commission has surfaced the political agenda behind it, as the government does not want to contest the elections on the present conditions. However, due to the lack of Panchayat and urban body elections, the general public is also facing the brunt because there is no public representative in the bodies and the work is going on on the trust of the administrators.
