The State Election Commission on Tuesday put the blame for the confusion over the schedule of civic polls, which should be held in October as per normal schedule, squarely on Kerala’s Congress-led Government even as the High Court decided to issue its interim order on Thursday on the Government’s appeal against an earlier order which nullified the formation of new panchayats.
While countering the Government’s argument in the High Court that the civic poll could be held within 86 days, the Commission said the Government was not cooperating in the efforts to hold it in time. It said it had been writing continually to the Government since 2012 but no creative response was forthcoming and that even the Delimitation Committee was constituted just four months ago.
As per normal schedule, the local bodies election process has to be completed in October and the new councils should be in place by November 1. As the delimitation process has now been found faulty and incomplete by the court, the panel wants the poll to be held on the basis of the 2010 ward structure while the Government is insisting that it should be held as per delimitation.
The Commission’s argument is that a minimum of six months would be needed for the completion of the delimitation process and that the election cannot be delayed for such a long time. It holds the civic poll can be completed as per normal schedule if the Government agrees to hold it on the basis of the 2010 ward structure.
A single-judge bench of the High Court had on August 10 nullified the formation of 69 new panchayats by splitting Revenue villages in violation of the provisions of the Panchayati Raj Act. Two days later, the State Government had filed an appeal in a division Bench against this order saying the delimitation was carried out on the basis of the 2011 census.
On Tuesday, the division Bench said it would not interfere in the authority of the Commission, which was responsible for poll-related matters. It was the constitutional duty of the poll panel to complete election processes in a time-bound manner and the only issue before the court related to the stay the Government had sought against the single-judge Bench’s order, it said.
It is alleged the Congress-led UDF Government had gone for the delimitation process by dividing wards in violation of the law that same Revenues village should not be split among different local bodies due to the pressures from the Muslim league, a major front constituent, which wanted domination of voters belonging to a particular community in the wards.
The Government opposed the poll panel’s claims before the division Bench with the argument that holding the local bodies election on the basis of the ward structure of 2010, the basis of which was the 2001 census, would be constitutionally wrong. A fresh census had been held in 2011 and in this context the ward structure of 2010 had become irrelevant, it argued. The Government also contradicted the argument of the Commission that a minimum of six months would be needed for holding the election after completing delimitation. It expressed the confidence that the election could be held in November after completing the delimitation process if the division bench issued an interim stay on last week’s order of the single-judge bench.
Meanwhile, the Muslim league, which is facing the charge that its insistence on holding the polls as per the new ward structure had led to the confusion, threatened to “disclose many things” if the High Court order on the appeal went against the Government’s interests. Muslim league is the second biggest constituent of the Congress-led ruling front.
“A sustained campaign is being carried out by certain quarters including a section of the media that the formation of new panchayats is solely on the basis of our interest. What is happening is that some people are giving a communal colour to whatever the Muslim league says,” said KPA Majeed, the party’s State general secretary.