Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh urban local bodies polls, scheduled to be held before July 15, are likely to get put off till October-November. Despite the UP State Election Commission (SEC) holding meetings of the district officials to prepare for the elections in June-July, the BJP and UP Government officials do not seem to be so enthused about it. Yesterday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath hinted in Moradabad and Bareilly that the urban local bodies polls could be postponed but there was no such official word yet. State Election Commissioner, SK Agarwal, who has been visiting several areas to spruce up the preparation, was still not aware if the elections would be postponed. “I have no knowledge whether the elections would be postponed. It is up to the State Government to decide but they have not informed me yet about their decision hence we are going ahead in the preparation,” he said here today.
Mr Agarwal had already hinted that the law and order situation in the State was not so good, but on the other hand had also announced that the notification for the elections would be announced sometime in the first week of June. SEC in view of the concerns on the voters list, has extended the revision dates for revision of the voters list and remove the discrepancies in it till June 5. Similarly, the State Government is likely to order a fresh rapid survey of the OBC population in the State to be completed in 45 days. Meanwhile, sources here today said that the Government was likely to issue an order for the postponement citing discrepancies in voters’ list revision and complaints about rapid OBC survey, the SEC may defer the notification.
However, what has forced the Government to rethink, say sources, is the alleged irregularities in the voters list and the flooding of complaints in the rapid survey for the reservation of the constituencies in the local bodies and the holy month of Ramzaan in June. Besides, the BJP too was not in favour of holding the elections out of fear that its core urban voters may not come out to vote due to heat wave. Besides, the party also wanted that elections to the newly formed municipal corporations – Ayodyha-Faizabad and Mathura-Vrindavan should be held along with all others. It was not possible in the June-July schedule.
