Municipal Corporation elections are conducted to elect municipal councilors and ward representatives for municipal corporations in India. With the enactment of the 74th Constitution Amendment Act in the Constitution of India, the city municipal corporations are identified as ‘institutions of self-government’.

Accordingly, notification for Uttarakhand body elections will be issued on November 10 and the election process will be completed by December 25. Body elections in Uttarakhand will no longer be held in October. The state government has submitted a new affidavit in the High Court today stating that the new State Election Commissioner has been appointed and the process of delimitation has also started.

The government said that the process of delimitation of 11 local bodies has started from September 3. This process will be completed by October 31 within the stipulated time limit.

At the same time, keeping in mind the festive season, a new timetable has been issued for the elections. According to this, now the notification for the civic elections will be issued on November 10, while the election process will be completed on December 25.

A new affidavit was presented by the Uttarakhand government. In the affidavit, the government said that after consultation with the State Election Commission, the report of the single commission on OBC, SC-ST reservation has been finalized as per the Supreme Court order on September 3. On October 31, the reservation for urban local bodies will be finalized based on the recommendations of the commission. The notification for the election will be issued on November 10. The final voter list will be released by the Election Commission on October 16.

Elections are likely to be held in 102 municipal bodies of Uttarakhand in mid-December. On 30 August, the government extended the tenure of administrators till the formation of a new board. The government has intensified preparations for the municipal elections in Uttarakhand. The delimitation process has been completed and by mid-October, OBC reservation and revision of voter lists in 11 bodies will be done.

Elections are planned to be held in 102 out of 105 municipal bodies of the state by mid-November, while elections will not be held in three bodies (elections are not held in these three municipal councils of Badrinath, Kedarnath and Gangotri). After the tenure of the municipal bodies ended on 2 December, when the situation for elections could not be created, they were handed over to administrators for six months. When elections were not held, the tenure of administrators was extended by three months. On 30 August, the government further extended the tenure of administrators till the formation of a new board.

The number of municipal bodies in the state is as follows:

Municipal Corporation: 11

Municipal Council: 45

Nagar Panchayat: 49

OBC reservation determination case is pending in the High Court. The case related to the civic elections is pending in the High Court. The government had earlier told the court that elections would be held by October 25, but now it is impossible. The reason for this is that the matter of OBC reservation determination is with the Select Committee of the Assembly, which will submit its report by September 23. The State Election Commission has fixed time till October 16 for special revision of voter lists in 11 bodies. The Select Committee’s report on OBC reservation is also expected by this period. Because of these circumstances, the government is moving towards a quick process of civic elections and plans are being made to conduct elections by mid-November. The Commission will complete this work by October 31. After this, the notification of civic elections will be issued on November 10. After nomination and all other election work, civic elections will be held in the state between December 15 and 20. Meanwhile, a notification regarding the delimitation of various bodies was issued.

Article written by and Editorial credit: State Bureau Chief Himanshu Nauriyal.