Under fire from Cong and BJP, state goes back on mayoral election rule Poll dates announced for urban local bodies in state

TAKING U-TURN Govt note says only elected members will be allowed to run for posts of mayor and chairperson of municipalities

JAIPUR: Under fire from the opposition and its own party, the Rajasthan government on Friday revoked its earlier decision to allow unelected persons to contest for the posts of heads of local bodies.

State urban development and housing minister Shanti Dhariwal in a statement clarified that in the local body elections, which will be held next month, mayors and chairpersons of local bodies would be chosen by the elected councillors.

The local self-government department had on October 16 notified the Rajasthan Municipal (Election) (Fourth Amendment) Rules, 2019, which allowed any citizen to stand for election to the post of chairperson or mayor.

After announcing the “hybrid formula” as it came to be known, the government faced embarrassment when deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and a couple of ministers opposed the decision saying it was undemocratic and would lead to back-door entry.

The matter also reached the party high command and Rajasthan incharge Avinash Pande was asked to intervene in the matter and he asked the state leadership to come out with a corrective measure.

Pilot welcomed the decision, saying, “I am happy that the government has changed its decision of having unelected people run for the post of mayor and chairman. I believe it is against the ethos of our democracy and I am happy that the issue we took up has now been recognised and the government has changed its earlier decision.”

State BJP president Satish Poonia said the government was forced to take back its decision because it was under pressure from the BJP, the people as well as its own ministers.

“The BJP had announced a statewide agitation over the issue and the government was getting defamed and so it was on the back foot and forced to change its decision.”

He said the government got the hybrid formula because it was afraid that it would lose elections and wanted to bring their own people through the back-door. But with the Congress party divided on the issue and Pilot questioning the hybrid formula, the party had to reverse its decision.

In the statement, Dhariwal said it was unfortunate that a misconception was being spread by the BJP that the mayors and chairpersons would be imposed from outside and not be elected by councillors.

He said the government had made the provision to bring heads of local bodies from outside to obviate the situation where no

SC, ST, OBC, women or other candidates are able to win; then it would give political parties the right to appoint a person from the reserved category instead of indulging in horse trading.

Dhariwal said the BJP should welcome this initiative by the government. “Instead BJP leaders such as Satish Poonia, Gulab Chand Kataria, Rajendra Rathore and Gajendra Shekhawat are misleading their MPS and MLAS and telling them to agitate.

Two days back, the BJP held a meeting of its MLAS and MPS and decided to hold dharnas across the state on October 20 to protest against the Congress government’s “illegal” and “illogical” changes in the format of the local body elections.

Dhariwal said the BJP leaders were demoralising those political workers who are keen to contest the councillor elections. Taking a dig at the BJP leaders, he said “If they have the courage, they should declare that if the hybrid formula stays, then they will not make any non-councillor their candidate.”

Dhariwal also claimed the Congress had never promised direct elections to local bodies in i t s manifesto nor had t he government brought any ordinance or any amendment in the assembly.

He said the government had taken the decision to hold indirect elections for the post of mayors and chairpersons of local bodies so that there is amity and harmony in the society in the face of the environment of violence and fear that has been created by the BJP in the name of nationalism.

He said in the panchayat elections, if the need arises, persons from outside of sarpanchs and ward panchs are also made heads of district and block panchayats.

He said there is no constitutional ban on choosing an outside person as the head of a local body.

JAIPUR: The state election commission announced on Friday the poll schedule for 49 urban local bodies in Rajasthan.

Elections to three municipal corporations (MC), 18 municipal councils and 28 municipalities will be held in three phases, from November 1 to November 27. Polling will be held from 7am to 5pm, state election commissioner PS Mehra said. Around 3.3 million voters will elect representatives to these urban local bodies.

According to the schedule, the notification for the election of councillors will be issued on November 1 after which nominations can be filed. The last day o f wit hdrawal o f names i s November 8. Voting will be held on November 16, and votes will be counted on November 19.

For the post of chairpersons -mayors for municipal corporat i ons and chairpersons f or municipal councils and municipalities -- the notification will be issued on November 20. The last of filling nomination is November 21. Names can be withdrawn until November 23. Voting will be held on November 26 and the results will be announced the same day. The election of deputy chairperson will be held on November 27 and result will be out by 5pm.

Mehra said that there has been a rise in number of voters by 9.84% in comparison to 2014 when there were 2,940,587 voters, which has now increased to 3,230,123.

He said the election will be held through electronic voting machines (EVMS) and adequate machines have been made

Public Notification

Filling of Nomination Scrutiny of Nomination Withdrawal of Nomination Allotment of election symbol Polling

Counting

DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON: Election will be held on results will be announced the same day after voting

PS MEHRA, State election commissioner

available to all the districts. The commission has also made Evm-tracking software and provided it to district election officers through which they can

and

State carried out the delimitation of wards in 2014 on the basis of 2011 census. The wards have been reorganised in 2019 and there has been an increase of 13.33%. In 2014 there were 1475 wards, which has increased to 2105

online track its movement during transfer.

Mehra said the state government carried out the delimitation of wards in 2014 on the basis of 2011 census. The wards have been reorganised in 2019 and there has been an increase of 13.33 %. The numbers of wards in 2014 were 1475, which has increased to 2105 (including those of six newly constituted corporations).

He said around 20,000 personnel will be employed for the elections at 49 urban bodies and a similar number police personnel will be deployed to maintain law and order.

A maximum of Rs 2.5 lakh can be spent by a candidate contesting for councillor in a corporation. The spending limit for candidates in municipal council is Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 1 lakh for municipalities, Mehra said.