In a major blow to the Maharashtra government, the Supreme Court today, May 4, has ordered the State Election Commission (SEC) to announce the schedule for Municipal and Zilla Parishad elections within two weeks.
The apex court has said that the constitutionality of this order will be heard later. However, the state government had said that elections would be held only after the OBC reservation was approved.
This development comes as the time taken to prepare for the polls will stretch till June, by which time the monsoon will begin. Elections cannot be held during the monsoon months since it poses logistical challenges, the SEC had pointed out.
The apex court made these statements while hearing a clutch of petitions on the state’s local body polls, including one challenging the OBC quota and also the state’s new law which allowed the government to take over the powers for delimitation and ward formation for local bodies from the SEC.
The law was passed by the State Assembly in March and requires the delimitation and ward formation for civic bodies to be undertaken afresh. The state government had proposed the amendment, observers say, hoping to buy time for restoration of the 27 per cent OBC quota.
Reports stated that by the end of September, the local body polls whose term will end will include 20 Municipal Corporations, 25 Zilla Parishads, 285 Panchayat Samitis, 210 Municipal Councils and 2000 Gram Panchayats. The Municipal Corporations which will face elections include major civic bodies including Nagpur, Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nasik, Navi Mumbai, Kolhapur and Solapur.
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