Days after the state cabinet passed a resolution to postpone the upcoming local body elections in Maharashtra, the state government has written to the State Election Commission (SEC) asking it to postpone the elections to local bodies by at least three months. . Allow it to collect data relating to the share of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the population.
The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi cabinet on Wednesday passed a resolution requesting the SEC to postpone the elections. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) minister Chhagan Bhujbal had then said that the chief secretary would write a letter to the SEC on the issue.
SEC sources said the commission is probing the matter. State Election Commissioner UPS Madan said, “We received the letter on Friday, and will reply to the government this week.” indianexpress.com,
Notably, the resolution has been passed with regard to the upcoming local body elections and it will have no bearing on the by-elections to 105 nagar panchayats, two zilla parishads and some by-elections to be held on Tuesday (December 21).
Elections to 15 municipal corporations and 25 district councils, called “mini-assemblies” in local political parlance, are likely to be held next year.
The cabinet resolution was passed last week after the Supreme Court rejected the state government’s plea requesting census data from the Centre. The top court also directed the SEC to convert OBC seats into general seats. After the Supreme Court on December 6 stayed a state government ordinance providing for 27 percent OBC reservation in local elections, the SEC stayed the election of seats reserved for OBCs.
The Supreme Court, in its order on March 4, had asked the state government to complete a ‘triple test’ before notifying the seats reserved for the OBC category. The triple test involves setting up a dedicated commission to collect empirical data on the OBC population, specifying the proportion of reservations and ensuring that the cumulative share of reserved seats does not breach 50 per cent of the total seats.
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