Puducherry local body elections likely by April end

Puducherry, March 18: The local body elections in the Union Territory of Puducherry are likely to be held in the last week of April.

Elections have not been held during the past eleven years after the term of the elected bodies expired in 2011.

Puducherry State Election Commissioner Roy P. Thomas told IANS that there are no legal barriers to conducting elections and that almost all political parties in the Union Territory have expressed the desire to conduct elections at the earliest.

The State Election Commission, according to sources, is likely to hold the polls in the last week of April 2022 as the school annual public examinations for Class 10 and Class 12 students will be held in May. Polling stations will be set up in schools and teachers will be deputed as polling officers.

Notably, in Puducherry there is no reservation of seats for Other Backward Classes and Scheduled Tribes. However, a case filed by R. Siva, DMK leader, for reservation to these categories is under consideration by the Supreme Court.

The DMK had requested the State Election Commission to conduct the polls by reserving seats for STs and BCs after the verdict of the Supreme Court comes. The hearings were already conducted and the verdict is expected any time soon.

A meeting of electoral officials and political party representatives was held by the State Election Commission on Thursday to prepare for the local body elections.

The four regions of the Union Territory of Puducherry including, Puducherry, Yanam, Karaikkal and Mahe, will be going to the polls in a single phase, according to sources in the State Election Commission.