Petition Filed Against State Government And Election Commission Over Local Body Elections By Pune NCP

Pune, 10th August 2022: The Supreme Court has received a plea from the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Pune branch accusing the Maharashtra state government and election commission of delaying the state’s local body elections by another seven months by declaring a new ward delineation.

According to NCP, the failure to hold local body elections on time constitutes a breach of the 1992 amendment and contempt of court.

NCP City Unit President Prashant Jagtap said, “We have petitioned the Supreme Court against the Maharashtra state government and the state election commission on behalf of the NCP’s Pune chapter. A writ petition is also being submitted today.”

He added, “In Maharashtra, there has been an administrative rule in place for the past five months that affects 14 municipal corporations, 27 Zila Parishads, 350 Panchayat Samitis, 350 Nagar Palikas, and Nagar Parishads. Any local body election cannot be delayed by more than six months as a result of a 1992 amendment. Now that five months have passed, the new ward delineations will cause the elections to be delayed by a further seven months.”

Jagtap claimed that the 1992 amendment was broken because the current state government, which is led by Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde, wants to control over local bodies for a full year.

He explained, “The court had requested that an election be held within 15 days when it issued the order regarding OBC reservations in the local body elections. We contested this in court since it violates the 1992 amendment and is also in disobedience of the Supreme Court.”

Jagtap claimed that these local bodies, which are governed without representation, are home to about 9 crore people in the state.