Buldhana, Nov 25 (IANS) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday that the ongoing local body polls in the state will be held without any hindrance.
“Elections for 246 nagar parishads and 42 nagar panchayats are currently being conducted. The entire process is in its final stage. The voting will take place on December 2 and counting on December 3. The Supreme Court will accept the government’s plea to complete these polls without any hindrance,” he added.
He was reacting to the Supreme Court’s move to adjourn the hearing on November 28 leaving uncertainty over the timing of upcoming elections and seat reservations.
Amid continuing legal arguments over the implementation of the 50 per cent reservation cap and OBC seat allocation, the Chief Minister reiterated the state government’s commitment to cooperate.
CM Fadnavis said that the Supreme Court during the hearing on Tuesday made positive observation about the OBC reservation.
“The Supreme Court also said that the big bench needs to review the old judgment. I expect the elections will take place smoothly. But ultimately the Supreme Court has to take a decision so it will not be proper to make further comment in this regard,” he noted.
CM Fadnavis said the state government has always taken a stance that the elections should be held with OBC reservation.
“The Uddhav Thackeray-led government had taken the decision about reservation but in most of the civic poll bodies the reservation was exhausted. Thereafter, the government approached the court which gave the OBC reservation. Then the government argued that there should be full reservation. Thereafter, the court made some observation based on that the present elections are being held. Some people later approached the court with contempt petition and brought to its notice that there is a breach of the earlier apex court’s ruling. Therefore, the current petition is being heard in the court,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister dismissed Opposition’s allegations about the state government’s intentions as “baseless”, saying that the BJP believes in democracy and the election mechanism, and that recent unopposed results demonstrate public trust in the BJP’s leadership and development programmes.
Chief Minister Fadnavis called for all stakeholders to respect the process and assured that the state government would take necessary actions as laid out by the Supreme Court’s final pronouncement.
Earlier, during the hearing held on Tuesday and last week, the petitioner submitted that the 40 per cent reservation has been crossed in 159 local bodies comprising 17 Zilla Parishads, 83 Panchayat Samitis, two Municipal Corporations and 57 nagar parishads and nagar panchayats.
The reservation limit was significantly crossed, especially in tribal-majority districts where the Scheduled Tribe (ST) quota is already high.
The increase in reservation beyond 50 per cent is due to the combined quota for Scheduled Castes (SCs), STs, and the blanket 27 per cent reservation introduced for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in some areas, which is being challenged in the Supreme Court.
