Elections to urban local bodies likely by Jan-end

Hyderabad: Elections to the 123 urban local bodies (ULBs) in the state, comprising 117 municipalities and six corporations, are likely to be held in the last week of January. However, polls for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) will be held later.

The officials in the Commissioner and Directorate of Municipalities (CDMA) completed the required delimitation process in the ULBs and reported it to the State Election Commission (SEC) to proceed with the elections. A meeting of the officials of the State Election Commission with the Commissioners was held on Wednesday. A senior official in the CDMA who attended the meeting said the elections are likely to be held in January.

The term of these municipalities ended almost eleven months ago and presently the special officers are overseeing their functioning. The municipal commissioners were told to make arrangements for the elections in their respective municipalities and were asked about the requirements like staff, security personnel for the polling, the official informed. 

The officials said there was a small window towards January-end and early February. After that, there will be a budget session of the Assembly. After this, the examination season will start, and the government staff will not be available for the poll duty till May.

In this scenario, the government will be keen on completing the municipal elections by the end of January. The SEC had recently issued notification for the pre-election preparations. As per the schedule, the re-arrangement of ECI polling stations data into municipality/municipal corporation was done on Tuesday. The Commission rearranged ECI polling station-wise data into ward wise data in municipality/municipal corporation and thereafter re-arranged ward-wise data int polling station-wise rolls on Wednesday.

The publication of draft municipality/municipal corporation polling station wise rolls on notice boards and calling for objections on names/addresses will be done on Thursday.

The Commission would take up meeting with the representatives of political parties at ULB level by concerned commissioners of municipalities and municipal corporations on January 5, at district level by district election authorities on January 6, and final publication of electoral rolls will be on January 10.

The official said that the GHMC elections will not be part of the statewide municipal elections because there was some exercise left in the corporation. The delimitation process should be completed and presently the town planning officials are taking up mapping of the wards, which is an important step in delimitation. The current GHMC council’s term will end on Feb 11, 2026.