Tamil Nadu to get local body representatives after 3 years, SEC notifies poll dates

After a long wait of three years, the people of Tamil Nadu are going to choose their local body representatives who will be at the bottom line of the political system to whom people can approach to sort out their basic issues. The State Election Commission (SEC) on Monday announced that the polls will happen in the start in two phases on December 27 and 30.

State Election Commissioner R Palaniswamy referring to various administrative reasons said that the elections will only be held for rural bodies and urban body polls will be notified later.

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The filing of nominations will begin on December 6 and the last date to submit a nomination will be December 13. The last date for the withdrawal of the applications will be December 18 and counting of votes along with results will take place on January 2.

Indirect elections to the post of mayors and the municipal chairman will be held on January 11. The local body elections have not been conducted in the state since 2016 due to various legal reasons and also because of the delimitation of wards according to the population census. According to political analysts, various political factors including non-stabality was also one of the reasons.

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DMK approaches SC

The principal opposition party DMK recently approached the Supreme Court, seeking direction to the SEC to carry out the delimitation and reservation process for newly created districts in the state before releasing the notification of the elections.

However, the court ordered the State Election Commission to issue election notification and complete legal formalities before December 13, the matter is listed for the hearing on December 5, which will decide the course of the election.

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The DMK president, however, expressed his displeasure over the election announcement in two phases. He said, "Even general elections are conducted in a single phase in this state until now, but local body polls are announced for two phases which is a mockery, there is some hidden agenda in this."

This will be a great relief for the people of Tamil Nadu as they can approach the local body representatives to solve their issues and the officials who are given charge to do the work of local bodies will also be relieved from that duty.

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