Telangana to Hold Local Body Polls in September–October

Hyderabad: The state government is preparing to conduct elections to local bodies in September and October, with mandal and zilla parishad territorial constituency (MPTC, ZPTC) elections scheduled first, followed by gram panchayat polls in the first week of October.

While the MPTC and ZPTC elections will be contested on party symbols, the gram panchayat elections will be held on a non-party basis. The State Election Commission (SEC) is likely to issue notification for MPTC and ZPTC elections after September 10.

Roads and buildings minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, speaking informally with media persons in the Assembly lobbies on Sunday, said the Cabinet meeting held on Saturday had deliberated at length on the conduct of local body polls and reached a consensus to hold them in two phases. He stated that the Cabinet favoured completing zilla and mandal parishad elections first.

He added that this plan has been conveyed to the SEC to initiate arrangements. According to him, the SEC is in the process of updating the voters’ list, which will be finalised by September 10, paving the way for the notification thereafter.

The SEC has begun groundwork for the polls. It directed collectors to publish the draft voters’ list and polling station details for MPTC and ZPTC constituencies on September 6. Objections and claims from the public will be received between September 6 and 8. On September 8, collectors at the district level and MPDOs at the mandal level will hold meetings with representatives of political parties to review the draft rolls. The objections will be resolved by September 9, and the final list of voters and polling stations will be published on September 10.

Meanwhile, the SEC released the schedule for setting up polling stations for the MPTC and ZPTC elections. It directed officials to finalise the polling stations with the approval of district collectors and set a deadline of September 10 for the completion of this exercise. With these preparations in place, the stage is being set for a two-phase local body electoral process in the state.

Gfx

Mandal and zilla parishad territorial constituency polls to be held first, in September.

These will be contested on party symbols.

The gram panchayat elections, planned for the first week of October, will be held on a non-party basis.

State Election Commission (SEC) is likely to issue notification for MPTC and ZPTC elections after September 10.

SEC to complete updating of voters’ list by September 10, poll notification to be issued thereafter.

SEC says location of polling stations for the MPTC and ZPTC elections to be finalised by September 10.