State ZP-TP elections only after assembly polls?

Bengaluru: There is no way that the Zilla Panchayat-Taluk Panchayat (ZP-TP) elections to be held within May 2023, which were considered as the penultimate for the upcoming state assembly elections. Considering the current developments in the state government, the ZP and TP elections will be held only after the assembly elections.

On the one hand, the Delimitation Commission has asked for another three months for demarcation of constituencies. On the other hand, after the constituencies are fixed, the state government has set a limit of three months to complete the reservation process.

In this way, the process of scheduling and reservation of constituencies will take place for another six months i.e. till March 2023. The State Election Commission needs at least one month to prepare the voter list after the completion of the reservation process as the delimitation of the constituencies. After issuing the final reservation notification, it takes one and a half month to issue the election time list.

Even if the election is held in at least two phases, it will take at least 1 month. Meanwhile, if the assembly election process starts, the process of TP and GP elections will be further delayed. As the Karnataka Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj Act has been amended to fix the number of members and population for the TP and GP constituencies, a lot of time is required for the restructuring of the constituencies. Therefore, the Delimitation Commission requested the state government on September 19 to extend the period of the commission by three months. In the meantime, the government has requested the High Court to extend the deadline given on May 24, 2022 by another 6 months to complete the process of delimitation and reservation of TP and GP constituencies within 12 weeks.

The Vijayanagar district came into existence after the formation of Boundary Delimitation Commission. Before the formation of the commission there were 30 districts and 233 taluks. Then there are 31 districts and 238 talukas. In the meantime, many village councils have been upgraded to urban local bodies. Therefore, the commission said that more time is needed. The Boundary Delimitation Commission said 30 days time is required to bring a fresh proposal from the District Collector. As 15 days for scrutiny of proposals, 15 days for invitation of objections to restructuring proposals and their scrutiny. Another 15 days to finalize suggestions on draft notification and 15 days to conduct adalats at district level on objections. It takes one week to submit the final report.

Government said, six months time is required to complete the process of scheduling and reservation of TP and GP constituencies. If this time is not available, it will not be possible to redistribute the TP and GP constituencies due to the increase in the number of talukas and districts due to law changes and other developments. This will render the entire election process null and void.

The Election Commission said after the selection of constituencies, after the completion of the reservation process, it takes at least one month to publish the voter list for TP, GP elections. After that time is required for publication of election notification and election time list. All other preparations have already been made.