Andhra Pradesh to Announce Local Body Election Schedule Following Gazette Notification
The State Election Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh will declare local body election dates after the Gazette notification is issued.
Vijayawada, October 13 (Daily Kiran) : The State Election Commissioner (SEC) Anil Chandra Punetha announced on Tuesday that the schedule for local body elections in Andhra Pradesh will be revealed after the relevant departments issue a Gazette notification.
Punetha stated that the election schedule will be made public once the state government provides information regarding its preparations for the elections. He assured that the elections would be conducted efficiently, emphasizing security measures in sensitive and hyper-sensitive areas.
Following a meeting with representatives from 20 political parties, Punetha informed the media that these parties had requested security for their candidates. They also offered several recommendations to the SEC, including timely issuance of caste certificates.
On Monday, the state government announced reservations for the positions of mayors in 17 municipalities and chairpersons in 106 municipalities and town councils. Specifically, one mayoral seat is reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) in Mangalgiri Tadepalli, two seats for ST in Kurnool (women) and Rajamahendravaram (general), and five seats for Backward Classes (BC) in Kakinada (women), Machilipatnam (women), Eluru (general), Anantapur (general), and Chittoor (general).
In the municipalities of Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, Guntur, Kadapa, and Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), five mayoral seats have been reserved for women (general). However, the mayoral seats in Tirupati, Vijayawada, Ongole, and Nellore remain unreserved.
P. Sampath Kumar, the Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration, has issued an official notification finalizing ward-wise reservations for ST, SC, BC, and women in the state’s 13 major municipalities.
After the Andhra Pradesh High Court annulled the 34 percent reservation for BCs, the state government set the total reservation limit for all categories at 50 percent. The Supreme Court dismissed a petition challenging the High Court’s ruling on October 9.
The Supreme Court raised concerns regarding the legal basis for the state government’s data used to justify increasing the BC quota, particularly the results from the ‘Unified Family Survey.’
On October 1, the Andhra Pradesh High Court overturned two government orders that granted 34 percent reservation for BCs in local body elections, stating that this exceeded the 50 percent cap for total reservations. The court affirmed that, according to Supreme Court guidelines, total reservations for all categories in local bodies should not surpass 50 percent.
This court ruling dealt a blow to the coalition government led by N. Chandrababu Naidu, as increasing the BC reservation from 20 percent to 34 percent was one of their key promises ahead of the 2024 assembly elections. Naidu had announced the increased quota on August 18, stating that BCs would receive 34 percent reservation in rural local bodies and 33.33 percent in urban local bodies.
