The Supreme Court directed the Election Commission (EC) and all concerned state authorities of Maharashtra to ensure the election process with respect to local bodies is immediately commenced and taken forward based on direction in order of May 4.The top court also ordered the Maharashtra State Election Commission to notify the election within two weeks.
“We want election to be conducted. It cannot be deferred like this indefinitely,” observed the Supreme Court bench.The State Election Commission had announced that polls to 92 Nagar Parishads and four Nagar Panchayats in Maharashtra will be held on August 18.
Elections will be held for local urban bodies in Pune, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur, Nashik, Dhule, Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed, Osmanabad, Latur, Amravati and Buldhana districts.
But Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde told the Election Commission that it would not be convenient to hold local and municipal polls in the state in the wake of the ongoing rainy season.
The BJP had earlier opposed the holding of local body elections until the OBC quota, set aside by the Supreme Court in March last year, was restored.
But, the party is now in power in the state along with the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, whose rebellion against the Sena leadership triggered the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government last month.
A three-judge bench of the apex court had earlier said the reservation in favour of the OBCs in the local bodies in Maharashtra cannot exceed 50 per cent of the total seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs taken together.
