UP proposes 57 reserved seats for civic body polls
Ahead of the local body elections, which are likely to take place by the end of the year, the Uttar Pradesh administration rolled out a proposed list of ward reservations for the nine local bodies, including the Ghaziabad municipal corporation, on Friday. The list indicates that only 43 seats for councillors will be unreserved, while the rest have been reserved for different categories, including women.
The Ghaziabad municipal corporation has 100 residential wards and 22 have been reserved for women candidates as per the proposed list. Besides, women from other backward classes (OBC) will be able to contest on seven, while five other seats have been reserved for scheduled caste (SC) women.
“The proposed list has been rolled out for local bodies and if the public has any objection, they are required to submit them with the district magistrate within seven days. After the objections are received and disposed of, the list will be sent to the state administration for a final approval,” said Vivek Srivastava, additional district magistrate (finance).
The tentative reservation for the wards was finalised by the district administration and sent to the state administration on November 4.
HT had earlier reported that 14 of the seats (including SC women) have been reserved for SC category, 21 for OBC category (including seven for OBC women), while 22 have been reserved for women candidates. On the seats reserved for women, SC and OBC category women can also contest, said officials. “The list issued by the state administration is more or less final and the prospective candidates are now gearing up for election activities. It is also expected that the reservation status for the seat of Ghaziabad
mayor and chairpersons of other local bodies is also likely to be announced in the upcoming days,” said Rajendra Tyagi, councillor from Raj Nagar.
“With the proposed list officially out now, various political parties have started brainstorming sessions to decide their candidates. Even those trying to contest as independents have started making preparations. The contest will heat up once the status of the mayoral seat is announced. There are many who have approached their respective parties for a mayoral ticket ,” said Himanshu Mittal, councillor from Kavi Nagar.
The reservation status has also been proposed for 55 wards of the Loni Nagar Palika, 34 wards of Modinagar Nagar Palika, 25 wards of Muradnagar Nagar Palika, 34 wards of Khoda-makanpur Nagar Palika, 10 wards of Nagar Panchayat of Patla, 11 wards of Farid Nagar Nagar Panchayat and 15 wards of Dasna Nagar Panchayat.
With the election activity likely to speed up in the coming days, the Ghaziabad district administration on November 19 also finalised the voters’ list and a total of 249,911 new voters (as compared to the previous 2017 elections) will exercise their franchise across the nine local bodies. The figure includes 146,357 new voters.
Officials said a supplementary list for addition/deletion of names is also under preparation and will be finalised before the announcement of the elections.