Jaipur: The state election commission Wednesday notified bypolls to all vacant posts in urban local bodies and panchayati raj institutions between Jan 1 and May 31 this year.As per the SEC notification, elections to the posts of three panchayat samiti pradhans, three up-pradhans, three zila parishad members, and 14 panchayat samiti members will be held between Aug 21 and 24. Bypolls to the posts of zila parishad and panchayat samiti members will be held on Aug 21, and the counting of votes will be on Aug 22. Elections to the posts of pradhans will be held on Aug 23, and up-pradhans on Aug 24. The counting of votes for pradhans and up-pradhans will be held on the day of polling.The EC also notified elections to nine ward members in Rajakhera Nagar Palika in Dholpur, 10 ward members in Nawalgarh Nagar Palika, Jhunjhunu, nine ward members in Devgarh Nagar Palika in Rajsamand, and 23 ward members in Khandela Nagar Palika in Sikar. Elections to the posts of ward members will be held on Aug 21, and the counting of votes will be on Aug 22.The process of filing nominations for both urban local and panchayati raj bodies will begin on Aug 5.The election commission order is likely to delay the Rajasthan govt’s promise to implement the One State-One Election model on local bodies and panchayat polls and conduct them simultaneously by the end of the year. Urban development and housing minister Jhabar Singh Kharra and social justice minister Avinash Gehlot repeatedly claimed over the past months that Rajasthan will conduct polls to panchayat and urban local bodies simultaneously by year-end. With the mandatory delimitation exercise for redrawing constituency boundaries nowhere in sight, the general elections to both urban local bodies and panchayat institutions, sources said, are likely to be pushed to next year.
