Uttar Pradesh: Urban Local Body Polls Announced

The Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission (UPSEC) on Sunday (9 April) announced two-phase elections for 14,864 posts across 760 urban local bodies.

The polls will be held on 4 May and 11 May, and results will be declared on 13 May.

The state has 760 urban local bodies, comprising 17 municipal corporations, 199 nagar palika parishads, and 544 nagar panchayats, with one head each.

Moreover, there are 1,420 posts for ‘corporators’ in municipal corporations, 5,327 members to nagar panchayats, and 7,177 members to nagar palika parishads in the state.

A total of 4.32 crore people are eligible to vote in these elections. The state election commissioner (SEC) said in the press conference, “The polling in 17 Municipal Corporations i.e. the voting for mayors and corporators will be done through EVMs, while the voting for remaining will take place through ballot paper.”

The SEC also pointed out that the number of local bodies has increased by 107 compared to 2017 when the elections were last held. This includes one municipal corporation, one nagar palika parishad, and 105 nagar panchayats.

Simultaneously, the number of voters has also gone up by 96.33 lakh, and the total number of posts has also increased by 2,024 compared to 2017.

The issue then went to the Supreme Court and the state constituted a backward classes commission to conduct an inquiry into the ‘political and economic backwardness’ of OBCs in the state.

It was only after the Supreme Court paved the way for elections on 27 March that the commission is announcing the polls now.

 A day before the announcement, the Uttar Pradesh Urban Development Department issued the final reservation notification, according to which nine out of the 17 mayoral seats are to be reserved.

This includes one for Scheduled Caste in Jhansi, one for Scheduled Caste women in Agra, two for OBC women in Shahjahanpur and Firozabad, two for OBCs in Saharanpur and Meerut, and three for women in Lucknow, Kanpur and Ghaziabad.

Notably, the Prayagraj mayoral seat, which was earlier reserved for OBCs, has now been declared unreserved. Mayoral seats of Varanasi, Aligarh, Bareilly, Moradabad, Gorakhpur, Ayodhya and Mathura-Vrindavan have also now been declared unreserved.

The reserved seats for OBCs saw no change in nagar palika and nagar parishad posts, remaining at 205 seats, while reserved seats for women, SCs, and STs went up.

The urban local body polls are the last elections in the state before the general elections in 2024, making it crucial for both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition.