The State Election Commission (SEC) has been directed by the Supreme Court to decide local body elections at its level and stated that the state government has no right to decide on the conduct of the local body elections. In the statement given earlier by the Supreme Court, it had made it very clear that just on the ground of the absence of political quota for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the local body elections the elections cannot be postponed.
In a recent hearing for a case relating to upcoming local body elections and by-polls for the vacant seats in five district councils after the quota came into effect. In the hearing, it was stated by the Apex Court that the decision on election should be taken by the State Elections Commission. Highlighting the notification raised by the state government on August 11, stating a ban on the campaigning of elections, the Supreme Court (SC) stated that the government cannot compress the decision taken by the court of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota on March 4.
“The verdict made it very clear that was given by the Supreme Court (SC) on this matter that the state government has no right to decide on the conduct or postponement of the local body elections, as the power is with the SEC, it should be deciding that what would be the dates for elections after having a look at the current situation of Covid 19 in Maharashtra,” stated an official from Mantralaya.
The elections for more than five municipal corporations with two district councils, more than 100 Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats and by-polls for many seats in five district councils had earlier been postponed for the next year 2022 due to the second wave of Covid 19 in the state. The most prominent corporation election will be of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as speculation of
Congress contesting alone for the elections comes up of its Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, comprising Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with every party gearing up steadily.
