14 civic bodies may go to polls between July & October, hints State Election Corporation

NAGPUR: Elections to 14 municipal corporations including Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) are likely to be conducted between July and October. The state commission (SEC) has dropped hints about the likely dates for the first time since the election process began nine months ago.
The SEC has also declared May 31 as the cut-off date for voters’ list for the 14 civic bodies. This means voters registered on or before this date are entitled to cast vote in these polls.
In a letter issued to municipal commissioners of 14 civic bodies, the SEC said, “There are three steps for election to local-self governing bodies — delimitation of wards and reservations, breaking of assembly constituency-wise voters’ list prepared by the Election Commission of India ward-wise and booth-wise in accordance with the cut-off date and the third step is election.”
The SEC stated that delimitation of wards in 14 municipal corporations is complete. “May 31 is the cut-off date for voters list for local-self governing bodies elections to be held from July to October. Assembly-wise voters list prepared till May 31 will be used for the elections,” the SEC said.
The SEC has directed the 14 municipal corporations to publish ward-wise voters list on June 17, followed by inviting suggestions and objections between June 17 and 25 and publication of final ward-wise voters’ list on July 7.
As per SEC, the tenure of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivali and Kolhapur Municipal Corporation ended on May 2020, June 2020, and November 2020, respectively. Similarly, tenure of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, NMC, Pune, Thane, Ulhasnagar, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Amravati and Akola ended in March-April 2022.
The elections were supposed to be held before the end of tenure but were delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, OBC reservation tangle and revisions to ward-system from one member to three-member, followed by an increase in the number of corporators etc.
Already, municipal corporations have obtained assembly-wise voters’ list. As far as the voters’ list for municipal elections is concerned, earlier cut-off date was finalized as January 5. As delimitation of wards was delayed and completed on May 13, cut-off date was revised to May 31.
Probably for the first time, voters list for municipal corporations' election will be prepared using online portal of SEC facilitated through MahaOnline.
The SEC has asked the municipal corporations to ensure there are no discrepancies in the number of voters in assembly-wise list and ward-wise electoral rolls. “Municipal corporations should finalize voters’ list only after considering suggestions and objections. Three types of corrections are allowed — mistake in names, listing in another ward and missing of name,” SEC said.
The SEC did not direct municipal corporations to conduct hearing on suggestions and objections, unlike during finalization of delimitation of wards and reservation on seats.
As per SEC guidelines, municipal corporations had finalized seats reserved for women by conducting draw on May 31. Suggestions and objections have been invited between June 1 and 6. Final list of seats with reservations will be published on June 13.
After completion of process of reservation and voters list, the SEC will announce code of conduct.