Nation

UP Civic Polls: After SC Nod, 760 Urban Bodies Gear Up For Two-Phase Elections. Key Points

April 10, 2023
Bharat Times

The upcoming local body elections, or the nagar nikay chunav, in Uttar Pradesh are being considered a semi-final before the big poll battle in 2024. The elections will take place in two phases on May 4 and 11, with vote counting scheduled for May 13. State election commissioner Manoj Kumar has issued a notification for the polls, and the model code of conduct (MCC) has come into effect immediately.

Here’s all you need to know about the Uttar Pradesh civic body polls:

  • A total of 17 municipal corporations, 199 municipal councils, and 439 nagar panchayats will elect their new representatives. As many as 1,420 corporator seats, 5,327 nagar palika parishad member seats, 544 nagar panchayat chairperson seats, and 7,178 nagar panchayat member seats will be up for grabs. A total of 14,684 posts in the state will be contested.

  • The number of urban bodies has also increased from 653 to 760 this time, according to the SEC.  The new urban bodies consist of one municipal corporation, one municipal council and 105 nagar panchayats. There are also 96.33 lakh more voters this time around as compared to 2017, with more than 4.32 crore people expected to exercise their voting rights in the civic polls.

  • As many as 37 districts under Lucknow city, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Agra, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Devipatan, Gorakhpur, and Varanasi divisions will vote in the first phase on May 4. The second phase of the polls on May 11 will feature 38 districts under nine other divisions — Bareilly, Kanpur, Meerut, Aligarh, Chitrakoot, Ayodhya, Basti, Azamgarh, and Mirzapur.

  • The Model Code of Conduct is now in force throughout the state following the issuance of the election notification.

  • The nomination process for the first phase of polling will begin on April 11 and continue until April 17, with the allotment of election symbols taking place on April 21. For the second phase, the nomination process will begin on April 17 and continue until April 24, with the allotment of election symbols taking place on April 28.

  • The State Election Commission’s decision to conduct the polls comes three months after the Allahabad High Court on December 27 last year invalidated the government’s draft notification that provided OBC reservation in the elections. The high court had ordered the state government to notify the polls “immediately” as the term of several municipalities was set to end by January 31.

  • The Supreme Court on March 27 allowed the SEC to issue a notification with an OBC quota for the local body polls, paving the way to conduct the polls.

  • The elections are expected to feature a tough contest between the ruling BJP and the principal Opposition, Samajwadi Party. Both will try to strengthen themselves ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

  • The urban local bodies elections are likely to witness the participation of as many as 127 political parties. Over the past five years, 37 new political parties have emerged in comparison to the previous urban local bodies elections held in 2017.

  • Earlier in December the SEC had released a list of 127 registered political parties, which included 16 recognised and three non-recognised parties. It had also named 108 parties with provisional registration.