The Supreme Court on Friday ordered holding of elections to the panchayat raj bodies in the state. With the serious warning from the apex court, the State Election Commission (SEC) is likely to issue a poll notification for zilla parishad territorial constituency (ZPTC) and mandal parishad territorial constituency (MPTC) elections on Sunday. The elections will be conducted on party symbols in the first week of April.
The SEC is likely to hold elections in one phase and use the ballot paper instead of electronic voting machines (EVM) which are being readied for the Assembly elections. The state government has conducted election of sarpanches recently but postponed ZPTC and MPTC elections. Then a petitioner approached the apex court over the inordinate delay in conducting the elections.
The state will be considered as a unit for ZP and MPP chairperson posts, and district as a unit for ZPTCs and MPTCs. However, elections will not be held to all the 1,096 MPPs as cases are pending in courts against some MPPs over merger or demerger of villages.
Election of ZP and MPP chairpersons will be indirect. The voters will cast two votes, one for MPTC and another for ZPTC. MPTCs in a mandal will elect the MPP chairperson and ZPTC members in a district the ZP chairperson.
First, elections to municipal councils and corporations and nagara panchayats will be held on March 30. It will be followed by elections and zilla and mandal parishads in the first week of April.
Later, the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections will be held in two phases. All the elections will be conducted before the state’s division.
The urban voter will cast three votes, one each for the election of corporator/councillor, MLA and Lok Sabha member, and the rural voter four votes, one each to elect MPTC, ZPTC, MLA and Lok Sabha member.
Panchayat raj officials are finalising the reservation for the posts of MPP and ZP chairpersons. Once the process is completed, PR officials will finalise the reservation and furnish it to the SEC by Saturday evening.
The SEC is likely to issue a notification on Sunday and inform the apex court of it.
The apex court warned the SEC that if the poll notification was not issued by Monday, it would be considered contempt of the court, official sources said.
RESERVATION: For for the first time, 50 per cent reservation will be implemented for women in the PR elections. The quota for ZP chairpersons will be 34 pc for BCs, 18.88 pc for SCs and 9.15 pc for STs. That means STs will get two, SCs four and BCs seven ZP chairperson posts.
Of the 1,096 MPPs, 49 are in the Scheduled Areas. All these 49 will go to the STs. In the remaining 1,047 MPPs in non-scheduled areas, the reservation will be calculated based on the population and will be 6.99 pc for STs, 19.32 pc for SCs and 34 pc for BCs. Women will get 50 pc reservation in all reserved and unreserved seats.
HC on Elections in 5 RR Dist Villages
The High Court on Friday directed the State Election Commission’s counsel to get instructions from SEC authorities on a writ petition seeking conduct of elections to five gram panchayats _ Kompally, Pragathinagar, Dulapally, Nagaram and Dammaiguda _ in Ranga Reddy district. Justice Ramesh Ranganathan was dealing with a writ petition filed by J Nagamani, a social worker, and four others of Ranga Reddy district complaining that the SEC failed to conduct elections to the five panchayats pursuant to a GO issued by the government on January 7 withdrawing the move to merge the panchayats with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.