The schedule for local body elections in Andhra Pradesh will be announced after the departments concerned issue gazette notifications, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Anil Chandra Punetha said on Tuesday. The SEC added that the poll schedule will be announced once the state government communicates its readiness for the elections.
Punetha said the elections would be conducted in an effective manner. He assured all security measures in the sensitive and hyper sensitive areas. He held a meeting with representatives of 20 political parties here on Tuesday. He told media after the meeting that the political parties sought security for the contesting candidates.
They also submitted various suggestions to the SEC, including timely issuance of caste certificates. The state government on Monday announced reservation for Scheduled Tribes (STs), Scheduled Castes (SCs), Backward Classes (BCs) and women for the posts of Mayors in 17 municipal corporations and chairpersons in 106 municipalities and nagar panchayats.
The state government has earmarked one Mayoral seat for STs (Mangalagiri Tadepalli), two seats for SCs (Kurnool Women and Rajamahendravaram General), five seats for BCs (Kakinada Women, Machilipatnam Women, Eluru General, Anantapuram General, and Chittoor General).
Five Mayoral seats have been reserved under Women (General) for Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, Guntur, Kadapa, and the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC). Mayor seats in Tirupati, Vijayawada, Ongole, and Nellore remained unreserved. Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration, P. Sampath Kumar, issued an official notification determining and finalising the ward-wise reservation of seats for STs, SCs, BCs and women across 13 major municipal corporations in the state.
The state government has capped overall reservation for all categories at 50 per cent after the High Court struck down its order for 34 per cent reservation for BCs. The Supreme Court on October 9 dismissed its plea challenging the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
The apex court questioned the legal basis of the data relied upon by the state government to justify the enhanced BC quota, particularly the findings of a Unified Family Survey.
On October 1, the Andhra Pradesh High Court struck down two government orders providing 34 per cent reservation for BCs in local body elections, saying that the quota breached the 50 per cent ceiling on total reservations.
The High Court said that the aggregate reservation for all categories in local bodies should not exceed 50 per cent in accordance with the Supreme Court's guidelines. The court judgment came as a setback to the N. Chandrababu Naidu-led coalition government, as increasing BC reservation in local bodies from 20 per cent to 34 per cent was one of its key promises during the 2024 Assembly elections.
Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had announced the enhanced quota on August 18, saying that BCs would get 34 per cent reservation in rural local bodies and 33.33 per cent in urban local bodies.
Andhra SEC to announce local body polls schedule after gazette notifications
