According to reports, the State Election Commission (SEC) has stayed the poll process for 92 municipal councils and 4 Nagar panchayats that were slated to be notified on July 20. The process was reportedly stayed in light of the Supreme Court (SC) hearings on the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota issue. The next hearing is now on July 19.
Based on accounts, the state is hoping that the Banthia commission report is upheld by the SC and the 27 per cent quota for local body polls is restored to the 50 per cent threshold. It is anticipated that staying the elections for the 92 municipal councils will permit the possibility of extending the OBC quota, if cleared, to the said elections as well.
Narratives suggest that last week, the SC in an interim order asked for polls to 271 gram sabhas to proceed without the OBC reservation because the elections were already notified. But, the SEC had the choice of staying elections to the 92 municipal councils and four Nagar panchayats that had originally been scheduled for August 18 because they had not been notified.
It has been reported that the BJP demanded that the local body elections be postponed and conducted after the SC decision on the OBC quota is delivered. Earlier this week, Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil while interacting with the media voiced, "We believe that if due to rains elections get postponed then it will be beneficial for political OBC reservation as more time will be there for it."