Jaipur, Aug 19 — The Rajasthan State Election Commission is set to announce the poll schedule for all 309 urban local bodies in the state at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. With the announcement, the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) will come into force immediately across the urban local bodies and remain in effect until the completion of the election process.
State Election Commissioner Rajeshwar Singh will announce the schedule at a press conference.
Once the code comes into effect, the government will not be permitted to announce new development projects in the urban areas covered by the elections. No new work orders can be issued, and new projects cannot be started. Ongoing development works, however, will continue as per existing approvals. Inaugurations and foundation stone-laying ceremonies for new projects will also be restricted during the enforcement of the Model Code.
Elections will be held for 10,245 councillor seats across 309 urban local bodies, comprising 10 Municipal Corporations, 51 Municipal Councils and 248 Municipalities.
The councillor elections will be held first, followed by elections for Mayors, Chairpersons of Municipal Councils and Municipal Chairpersons.
Of the 309 urban local bodies, the posts of Mayors and Chairpersons have been reserved for different categories. Sixty posts are reserved for OBCs, 50 for Scheduled Castes and 11 for Scheduled Tribes. A total of 3,356 seats have been reserved for women, with 33 per cent reservation for women across categories. Of the 10,245 wards, 1933 are reserved for OBCs, 1794 for SCs and 395 for STs. A total of 6,123 wards are unreserved, including 4,120 open seats and 2,003 seats reserved for women.
The elections are being conducted following directions from the Rajasthan High Court, which had expressed concern over delays in holding urban local body and Panchayati Raj elections and directed that the polls be completed by November 15.
The court had also directed that the reservation lottery process be completed by August 15. The Department of Local Self-Government has completed the lottery process for reservation of posts and wards and forwarded the details to the State Election Commission.
The enforcement of the urban local body election code is also expected to affect the government's legislative plans. The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill and the proposed legislation concerning the conservation of Khejri trees are unlikely to be passed during the upcoming Assembly session as the Model Code restrictions apply.
The monsoon session is scheduled to begin on Thursday and will continue for two days. Both bills may be introduced during the session, while the government could consider reconvening the Assembly in November to complete the legislative process after the election-related restrictions are lifted.