Jaipur: Election authorities across 41 districts in Rajasthan will conduct the reservation lottery for the forthcoming panchayat polls on Sept 23-24 after a brief delay caused by overlapping municipal election duties.The exercise will determine seats reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and women at the zilla parishad and gram panchayat levels.In Jaipur, district collector Sandesh Nayak said reservation and category-wise allocation for these posts would be done at the respective sub-division offices on Sept 24.“A day earlier, on Sept 23, the district administration will finalise reservation and allotment for zilla parishad members, pradhans of all panchayat samitis and panchayat samiti members at the district collectorate auditorium in Jaipur, beginning at 10.15am,” Nayak, also the district election officer, said.The election commission had earlier fixed the last week of Aug for reservation lotteries ahead of panchayat polls. The process was pushed back as the district election machinery was engaged in elections to 309 urban local bodies.In four ULBs, including Jaipur, counting for corporation elections was held on Sept 14, followed by repolling in 10 wards on Sept 16. Votes from those wards were counted on Sept 17. Officials then moved to preparations for mayor and deputy mayor elections, scheduled for Sept 25-26.Officials said the revised dates were fixed to ensure proper administrative arrangements and transparent allocation of reserved seats before the panchayat election process gathers pace across rural Jaipur this week.Like ULBs, Rajasthan is holding simultaneous polls for all zilla parishads and panchayat samitis across 41 districts for the first time under the One State, One Election framework.
