Local Body polls: Here are the prerequisites to file nominations in the elections

With the fast-approaching local body elections in Andhra Pradesh, the politic parties and the state administration is gearing up for the massive elections. In this occasion, we are here to brief you how the system has come into existence in the country. The local body system was formalized in 1992, following the study conducted by a number of Indian committees on various ways of implementing more decentralized administration. The system has three levels: Gram Panchayat (village level), Mandal Parishad or Block Samiti or Panchayat Samiti (block level), and Zila Parishad (district level)

These are the institutions of the local self-governance, which look after the administration of an area or small community such as villages, towns, or cities and are classified into two categories. The local bodies constituted for local planning, development and administration in the rural areas are referred as Rural Local Bodies (Panchayats) and the local bodies, which are constituted for local planning, development and administration in the urban areas are referred as Urban Local Bodies (Municipalities).

In the nation's journey towards becoming an economic power, local bodies play an important part in enabling development.

Since Andhra Pradesh is currently holding local body elections, let's have a brief note on the process of elections.

Sarpanch elections

As far as the gram panchayat elections are concerned, the elections will be held for the Sarpanch, Deputy Sarpanch ward members. The person who likes to compete in the elections needs to possess certain qualifications such as 21 years of age and should be enrolled in the voter list from the concerned village.

The candidates need to submit their nominations at the gram panchayat office in the village with documents such as criminal antecedents, assets and liabilities and educational qualifications in the form of a self declaration.

To contest the election in the constituency reserved for scheduled cast or scheduled tribe, the candidate is required to make a declaration with the nomination paper that he or she belongs to the scheduled cast or scheduled tribe.

The electoral office will scrutinize the nominations and prepares a list while elections will be held on the mentioned date followed by the declaration of results.

MPTC and ZPTC elections

These are more or less equal to the sarpanch elections, but these are Mandal level bodies where the candidates are required to submit their nominations at Mandal Revenue Offices. The qualification for the candidates carries the same as the Sarpanch election where he needs to have enrolled in voter list in the village. There will be one MPTC for the village who will elect the MPP( Mandal Praja Parishad). While in turn the ZPTCs are elected based on the majority of MPPs.

Municipal and Corporation elections

For Municipal and Corporation elections, the candidates need to file nominations at Municipal offices in the district as per schedule mentioned by the Returning officer. The elections will be held forward members and thereby the municipal chairman of the corporation chairman will be elected by the ward members. The eligibility criteria for the Candidate is to have a minimum age of 21 and need to submit all the forms related to the identity and criminal antecedents, assets and liabilities and educational qualifications in the form of a self-declaration.

Hand book for contesting candidates in local body elections