Telangana rural local body elections schedule announced by state election commission | Hyderabad News – The Times of India

HYDERABAD: The Telangana State Election Commission (SEC) will hold elections for the rural local bodies between October 9 and November 11 in five phases. The SEC declared that the model code of conduct in all the districts, except Hyderabad district, will come into effect immediately.Disclosing the details on Monday, State Election Commissioner I Rani Kumudini said the elections would be held for MPTC and ZPTCs in the first two phases, and for grampanchayats, the elections would be held in three phases. The nomination process for Phase I would begin on October 9, with polling taking place on October 23. The final phase of polling would be held on November 8. While the counting of votes would be conducted on the same day for Sarpanches and ward members (grampanchayats), the counting for MPTC and ZPTCs would be conducted on November 11 after the completion of the panchayat elections.Interestingly, the SEC has decided to release the election notification and commence the nomination process from October 9, as the Telangana High Court has said it would take up a hearing on October 8 regarding the 42% reservations for BCs, which was issued by the state govt through a GO a couple of days ago. The Telangana High Court said it would hear the case challenging the 42% reservations for BCs even if the election notification is issued by the SEC.Rani Kumudini said the elections would be held for 5,749 MPTCs, 565 ZPTCs, 12,733 grampanchayats, and 1,12,288 ward members. Generally, the SEC conducts grampanchayat elections first, followed by MPTCs and ZPTCs. However, the SEC has decided to conduct elections for the Zilla Parishad (ZPTCs and MPTCs) in the first two phases and grampanchayats in the subsequent phases. The commission stated that elections would not be held in 14 MPTC seats and 27 grampanchayats due to court cases.Election scheduleDate of nominations and pollingFor MPTCs and ZPTCsPhase I: October 9 and October 23Phase II: October 13 and October 27For GrampanchayatsPhase III: October 17 and October 31Phase IV: October 21 and November 4Phase V: October 25 and November 8