PMC, PCMC elections may be held in April, hints poll panel

“We plan to complete two important tasks — of releasing the final ward plan and final voters’ list by March 15. If the Supreme Court decides about OBC reservation before that, we will need three-four days to decide ward reservations. The civic elections will be held after that…,” SEC secretary Kiran Kurundkar said.

SEC officials indicated the elections will be held in April. “We have to complete the election process of municipal councils and municipal corporations before May-end,” Kurundkar even as he refused to give election dates. “You can draw your own conclusions based on our plan…whether it will be in April or May,” he added.

For parliamentary and assembly elections, a 45-day period is allotted for campaigning after the schedule is announced. For civic elections, 15-20 days is enough for campaigning, said SEC officials said.

Civic elections in PMC and PCMC will be held on the basis of three-member ward system. On Saturday, the SEC sent a schedule to the civic bodies regarding the draft delimitation plan. Accordingly, on February 1, the draft ward plan or draft delimitation plan will be released.

“After that, the civic bodies will have to invite suggestions and objections till February 14. The hearings on the objections will take place after that. We will appoint an IAS officer for the purpose. Depending on the number of complaints, objections and suggestions, he will conduct the hearings. The hearings might take a day or may last three-four days. He will then submit them to us with his comments. We will then make the necessary changes and publish the final delimitation plan,” said Kurundkar.

The second important task before the EC is that of getting the final voters’ list out. “After the final delimitation plan is out, we will get down to releasing the final voters’ list. This will need another 15-20 days. The list will be prepared on the basis of the January 5 data released by the Election Commission of India,” said Kurundkar.

The job of SEC does not end here. There is lot of confusion regarding the OBC reservation as the matter is still pending in the Supreme Court. “On February 8, the SC might rule in the case. If it does not, then it will go to next month. By next month, however we expect things to become clear. If the SC decides upon the OBC reservation, we will need three-four days to declare the reservations on civic seats,” officials said.

The tenure of PMC and PCMC civic general bodies ends by March 14. Since the new civic general bodies are not likely to be formed by then, an administrator will take charge of the respective civic bodies. “It has happened in other civic bodies as well,” Kurundkar said.

Dilip Band, former PCMC commissioner, said, “In case administrators are appointed, they will have all the powers of the civic general body meeting and the standing committee meetings. Either the state may ask the incumbent commissioner to serve as the administrator or may appoint a new administrator.”

Pune Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar said they have received the SEC schedule regarding the draft ward plan late on Saturday. “But I cannot hazard a guess as to when the civic elections will be held. That is for State Election Commission to decide. One thing is sure, the elections are not happening in February,” he said.

Balasaheb Khandekar, who heads the election department in PCMC, said, “The big task before us to conduct the hearings for the draft ward plan and then get the voters to list out. We have no clue when the elections will be held.”