Karnataka: Panchayat elections to be postponed?

Bengaluru: Amidst the second wave of COVID-19 and reported shortage of beds, life-saving drugs, and oxygen, the Karnataka Government is planning to postpone elections scheduled to pick representatives to zilla panchayats (ZPs) and taluk panchayats (TPs).

Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa on Monday claimed that the state cabinet would discuss the same following which the decision would be conveyed to the State Election Commission (SEC). "There is a general consensus among the officials to postpone polls to ZPs and TPs due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation. Over 3.5 crore people will have to be part of it (polls) if we conduct it now," Eshwarappa said in Bengaluru.

According to the reports, elections to 175 TPs and 30 ZPs were last held in 2016. Eshwarappa clarified that administrators would be appointed in place of elected representatives at these TPs and ZPs until elections are held.

Last year, elections to 5,762 gram panchayats in Karnataka were held in December after the Karnataka High Court ordered the SEC to do so. The High Court's decision then was despite the government arguing that it would be difficult to hold the polls on account of the pandemic then.