E-Paper
Madhya Pradesh panchayat polls cancelled, says state election commission
Madhya Pradesh’s decision to withdraw the ordinance follows the Supreme Court verdict earlier this month, staying the election process on seats reserved for OBC in the local body polls and told the state to renotify OBC category seats as general due to a lack of empirical data.
BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh state election commission on Tuesday cancelled panchayat elections scheduled from January 6 to February 16, days after governor Mangu Bhai Patel signed off on the Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet to withdraw the ordinance to hold the elections on Sunday.
“With the cancellation of the election, model code of conduct, which was imposed on December 4, also ended. The commission will return the deposit amount of representatives of the first phase of the election,” state election commission secretary BS Jamod said in a letter to all district collectors.
In MP, panchayat elections have been due since December 2019.
The government’s decision to withdraw the ordinance follows the Supreme Court verdicts earlier this month, staying the election process on seats reserved for other backward classes (OBCs) in the local body polls and told the state to renotify OBC category seats as general due to a lack of empirical data.
The Supreme Court has also stayed ordinances issued by Maharashtra to grant OBC reservation in local body elections and directed the SEC to hold elections to seats reserved for OBCs by notifying them as general category seats. On Monday, the Maharashtra assembly also passed a resolution recommending that the (SEC) should not conduct local body elections until reservation for OBCs was restored.
In Madhya Pradesh, the chief minister told the assembly on December 21 that the state government will not allow panchayat elections without OBC reservation and will approach the top court. A resolution was also passed by the assembly on Friday last.
The cabinet decision withdrawing the Madhya Pradesh Panchayat Raj Evam Gram Swaraj (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 cited the rise in Covid 19 cases and the assembly’s resolution.
Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh objected to the MP ordinance on grounds that it annulled the process of delimitation and reservation rotation set by the previous Congress-led government in 2019. On the basis of this ordinance, the panchayat election process was started as per the delimitation and reservation rotation of 2014.
The top court, however, faulted the ordinance for OBC reservation provided for in the law without any empirical evidence.
