BHUBANESWAR: The three-tier panchayat and urban local body (ULB) elections are likely to be held in the last week of April or the first week of May next year after the completion of the Census. The State Election Commission (SEC) is expected to issue the notification after the first week of March.
Stepping up preparations for the polls, state election commissioner Madhusudan Padhi on Tuesday reviewed the roadmap with district collectors through a video-conference, focusing on preparation of error-free electoral rolls, digitisation of election management and the election schedule.
According to the SEC, the Census operations will begin in February and continue till the first week of March. Once the exercise is completed, the Commission is likely to issue notification for the elections. The panchayat and ULB elections are likely to be conducted simultaneously as the five-year terms of both would have expired by then.
SEC secretary Santosh Kumar Das said booth-wise electoral rolls would be prepared through a door-to-door survey. The survey will be conducted from October 26 to November 7 this year. It will involve assigning serial house numbers to every household, listing of all eligible voters in each family, deleting ineligible names and adding left-out eligible electors following due procedure.
To minimise duplicate entries, the Commission will use advanced de-duplication software during the revision of electoral rolls. “If duplicate voters exist due to errors across different locations, whether in rural or urban areas, we will use a de-duplication software tool to identify and remove them, significantly reducing the number of duplicate entries,” he added.
He said, the booth-level officer (BLO) of the area will be appointed as the team leader in each team. The BLO will be assisted by two anganwadi workers. Wherever required, ASHAs, Jal Sathis or Swachh Sathis will also be included in the team, he said.
Supervisors and electoral registration officers at the block and urban level will oversee the entire process. Formations of the teams will be completed by July 31.
The meeting undertook a detailed review of the survey process, demarcation of booth and ward boundaries, collection of claims and objections forms, digitisation of survey data and time-bound execution of activities.
The draft voter list is targeted to be published on January 1, 2027 and the final voter list on February 10, 2027.
