With the State Election Commission dropping its objections to the poll schedule proposed by the Kerala Government, civic polls in the State are likely to be delayed by a month. However, this will depend on the interim order of the High Court that is expected on Thursday on a batch of petitions and an appeal of the Government. As per normal schedule, the election should be held in October and new councils should come into being by November 1.
On Wednesday, the Election Commission filed an affidavit in the High Court saying that it was prepared to hold the civic polls by cooperating with the Government and that it would take steps in this regard in accordance with the decisions taken at a high-level meeting convened by the Chief Minister on August 24.
In effect, the Election Commission has agreed to the Government proposal to delay the civic polls by one month. The Government wants the election to be held on the basis of the new ward structure in the newly-created 28 municipalities and one corporation while the 2010 ward structure could be made the basis in all other local bodies.
As per the Government’s plan, holding elections in October to ensure formation of new councils in the local bodies by November 1 is impractical. In an affidavit filed in the court the other day, the Government had prayed for permission to hold the polls by the end of November so that new councils could come into being by December 1.
The Government’s original plan was to hold the election as per the new ward structure in the entire State in order to include the newly-created Village and Block panchayats but it was forced to drop this after a single-judge Bench of the High Court on August 10 nullified the creation of new 69 village panchayats citing violation of provisions of the Panchayati Raj Act.
Citing procedural lapses, the single-judge Bench pointed out that the new panchayats were created by splitting same revenue villages among different local bodies which was a violation of the law. It also pointed out that the Government had failed to notify the splitting of the revenue villages before issuing notification on the formation of new wards. The Government and the Election Commission have arrived at an understanding over the civic poll issue after remaining at loggerheads for several weeks. The commission’s position just two weeks back was that the Government was deliberately refusing to cooperate with its efforts to hold the polls in time.
It was even alleged that the Congress-led UDF regime had gone for the delimitation process by dividing wards in violation of the law that same revenue villages should not be split among different local bodies due to pressures from the Muslim league, a major front constituent, which wanted domination of voters belonging to a particular community in the wards.
The Government’s intention is to hold the civic election in a single phase at the end of November but the commission favours a two-phase election saying that holding the election in a single phase is impractical. Sources said that the Government was most likely to agree with the poll panel over this. The Election Commission, however, claimed in the affidavit that it was not responsible for the circumstances that had led to the necessity of delaying the election, putting the blame on the Government.