The State Election Commission (SEC) has rescheduled the first phase of gram panchayat (GP) elections on the ground that the process initiated by it on January 23 has been vitiated.
The first phase of elections was to be originally held on February 5. It has been postponed to February 21. Nominations for this phase are to be filed from February 10 to 12.
The schedule of the other phases remains intact (dates of polling February 9, 13 and 17 for which nominations have to be filed from January 29 to 31, February 2 to 4 and February 6 to 8 respectively) but they have become the first, second and third phases respectively.
In a fresh notification issued on Monday, State Election Commissioner N. Ramesh Kumar said the SEC received information from several quarters that necessary arrangements were not made to receive nominations scheduled from January 25 for the first phase of elections owing to absence of instructions from the government, which filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the High Court order that elections should be conducted as per the schedule fixed by SEC.
He pointed out that the Supreme Court upheld the High Court judgment on January 25, paving the way for gram panchayat elections as per the revised schedule.
Poll staff
With this, the SEC rescheduled the elections and authorised the District Collectors and the State government to depute its employees and indent the services of Central Government employees as well as members of Central PSUs (CPSUs) as a last resort, for election-related responsibilities as deemed to be appropriate and necessary by the Collectors.
Besides, the SEC communicated the notification and its intentions to the Union Cabinet Secretary.
Mr. Ramesh Kumar said the District Collectors should undertake the election work by deploying the required manpower to enable the SEC to conduct elections in exercise of its powers conferred by Articles 243-K read with Article 324 of the Constitution.