Plan tweaked, panchayat polls likely in April-May now

Election notification may be issued in March-end instead of mid-February

LUCKNOW: In a change of plan, the three-tier panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh are most likely be held in April-May now as the state government has decided to issue the poll notification in March-end instead of making poll announcement in mid-February as publicly indicated by the authorities earlier.

The fresh development may cause a little disappointment to the villagers who were waiting for the poll announcement.

The poll notification will be issued on March 26 after the government finalises the reservation policy and allots seats and posts to the scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs), other backward classes (OBCs) and women accordingly, people aware of the development in the panchayati raj department and the state election commission revealed.

“It will take one month for the reservation policy to be finalised and another one month to reserve panchayats after which the state government will issue its poll notification on March 26 followed by the election commission’s notification with a detailed poll programme the next day or after Holi,” a panchayati raj department official said.

The commission sources said the government had already communicated its intention in this regard to the state election commission, requesting it to make preparations accordingly.

“Yes, it is true the state government has told us that they will issue their poll notification for the rural polls in March-end, most probably on March 26,” the people privy to the issue in the commission said.

They further said the actual poll activities might start only in the first week of April, considering the Holi vacations in the last week of March. The commission takes at least 45 days from the date of issuance of the first poll notification by the state government to wind up the election exercise with the announcement of the results.

“We expect to complete the poll exercise involving the fourphase voting by mid-May if the state government issues the poll notification by March- end,” they said. The state government has to constitute new village panchayats, in any case, before June 25.

The government announced the appointment of administrators in place of pradhans a day before the current panchayats completed their five-year term on December 25, 2020.The government deferred the polls by six months, citing “unavoidable circumstances” as the reason.

At least two public interest litigations (PILs) filed separately in the Allahabad high court and its Lucknow bench have challenged the very law under which the state government has appropriated to itself the power to defer polls for six months after panchayats complete their five-year terms. Earlier, panchayati raj minister Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, as well as senior officials, went on record last month, saying new panchayats would be constituted by March-end with the government issuing the notification by February 15.

“Now, the government is finding it difficult to stick to its old plan because of certain issues, including the incomplete complicated and time-consuming reservation exercise. However, the government has completed the partial delimitation of panchayats and wards and submitted all details to the commission as per the timeline,” those in the know of things said.

“But the commission will have to carry out the revision of voters’ lists separately in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Moradabad, Sambhal and Gonda and this work will take minimum of 30-35 days to complete,” they said. The commission on Saturday made the final publication of revised voters’ lists for the rest of the state.