The Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, said that the government may hold local body elections in early 2012, around February or March.

Speaking to the media at his chambers in the Assembly on Sunday, he said the local body elections were overdue due to court cases regarding reservations for Backward Classes.

He hoped for an early decision on the issue and said that the government is ready to conduct polls within three months.

Replying to a question he said that the Assembly Budget Session would not come in the way of local body elections.

Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy said the state government had already sent a proposal to the Union government on the need to bring an amendment to the Constitution, duly dispensing with MPTCs and ZPTCs and to revive the three-tier system for elections to panchayat raj bodies replacing the existing five-tier system.

He also said that at the time of adopting the Central legislation way back in 1994, the state did not anticipate the ill effects of replacing the three-tier system with a five-tier system.

According to the government’s latest proposal, the Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishads model that existed prior to 1987 should be revived to provide direct elections to the posts of sarpanch and samiti president.

The Chief Minister said the state had not yet decided whether to hold elections on party basis or not.