Uttar Pradesh: SEC expresses reservations over govt timeline for panchayat elections

According to sources, the SEC has told the government that it might not be possible to hold rural polls as per the government’s plan due to paucity of time required to complete the revision of electoral roll

The state election commission (SEC) has expressed reservations over the Uttar Pradesh government’s proposed timeline for holding the three-tier panchayat elections, terming it “impractical” considering all the work the commission has to accomplish before issuing the poll notification.

Representational image.

The SEC feels it may need more time to be poll-ready even if the government completes preparations on its part.

Though the government has not issued any official timeline, it has indicated that it wants the panchayat elections to conclude by March-end before board examinations begin in schools.

Minister of panchayati raj Bhupendra Chaudhary has publicly said the government will issue its poll notification around mid-February for the commission to start voting by mid-March.

According to sources, the SEC has, however, told the government that it might not be possible for it to hold rural polls as per the government’s plan due to paucity of time required to complete the revision of electoral roll.

“The government is free to decide the timeline for itself and complete the work related to delimitation, reservation etc accordingly, but there are certain things, such as the voters’ list revision, that the commission has to do and for which some time is required,” an SEC official said, requesting anonymity.

Currently, the commission is in the middle of giving final touches to the electoral roll revision for the entire state, barring the three districts of Moradabad, Shamli and Gonda, where delimitation of gram sabhas and wards is still in progress. The last panchayat elections in these three districts were held on the basis of the 2010 data and delimitation exercise there could not be carried out in 2015.

The delimitation exercise of villages affected by creation of new blocks in some districts, including Gautam Budh Nagar, is also underway and the government has proposed completing the job and issuing a final notification by January 18.

The SEC is going to make final the publication of voter lists for the rest of the state on January 22 after four months of protracted exercise.

“Now, the problem is that we will have to carry out a fresh exercise to revise the voter lists in three districts of Moradabad, Shamli and Gonda, where major changes are expected in the configuration of gram sabhas as well as in villages that come under new blocks,” another commission official said requesting anonymity.

The commission, he said, needed a minimum of 30-35 days to complete the fresh electoral roll revision. “This means we cannot make publish the electoral rolls for the remaining districts and villages before February-end, that too if the government sticks to its January 18 deadline for the completion of delimitation,” he pointed out.

The state government and the commission, he said, cannot issue the poll notification before the voter list revision for the whole state is completed. Sources said that in the given situation, rural polls were unlikely to be held before April.

When told about the commission’s doubts, additional chief secretary, panchayati raj, Manoj Kumar Singh, said there was still time to make preparations to conclude the polls by March-end. “Let us see. We, on our part, will complete the delimitation work as per our timeline,” he said.