The Tamil Nadu government decides to conduct the elections for the village local bodies only after delimitation

The Tamil Nadu government has decided to hold elections to rural local bodies in only 28 districts after completing delimitation and reorganizing local bodies, according to highly placed sources.

The tenure of 314 union panchayats and 9,624 village panchayats, apart from that of 28 district panchayats, will expire on January 5.

The previous elections for these local bodies were held in two phases in December 2019, covering about 92,310 posts including 76,746 village panchayat ward members and 9,624 village panchayat presidents. Since 2016, one half of the seats and offices of local bodies have been reserved for women.

The delimitation comes as a result of the government’s announcement earlier this year of the development of four municipalities – Pudukkottai, Namakkal, Tiruvannamalai, and Karaikudi – as municipal corporations. Therefore, the village and city panchayats should be merged with the proposed corporations. As a result, 11 village panchayats would come under Pudukkottai; There are 18 village panchayats under Tiruvannamalai; 12 village panchayats under Namakkal; and two town panchayats and five village panchayats under Karaikudi. In terms of restructuring, some rural local bodies may undergo internal changes, without merging with larger urban local bodies.

Besides, there are some village panchayats near Chennai and Avadi Municipal Corporations where infrastructure development needs a lot of attention. An example of this is the Vanagaram peri-urban panchayat, which comes under Villivakkam block of Tiruvallur district. Its profile has changed significantly following developments such as the establishment of a co-operative hospital.

Originally a village panchayat, Vanagaram was made one of the 690 peri-urban panchayats in August 2023 on the basis of proximity (located within 5 km of urban bodies). Factors such as population growth, density changes, and the impact of nearby urban local bodies were taken into consideration when Vanagaram and other village panchayats were made peri-urban panchayats. The government feels that if the elections are held without restrictions, the work will not be done for the next five years.

As long as the government has clarified, organizations that work to strengthen democratic systems at the grassroots level — such as Thannatchi, Aappor Iyakkam, Voice of People, Institute of Grassroots Governance, and Thozhan — continue to demand that elections be held soon.

Supreme Court decision

In support of their position, they cited a 2022 Supreme Court decision Suresh Mahajan vs State in Madhya Pradesh.

In it, the court made it clear that “the first [the process of delimitation] and/or triplicate examination is not necessary to prevent the issue of the electoral process of the Federal Election Commission in relation to local bodies when appropriate, much less overdue, including when the same is likely to happen in the near future”. The triple test concerns the establishment of a body dedicated to conducting rigorous contemporary research on the nature and effects of regression, especially in relation to local bodies; measures of political representation based on the body’s recommendations; and allowing up to 50% quota for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. The court also ruled that the constitutional authority to install newly elected bodies before the end of the five-year terms of the outgoing bodies and to allow no more than six months for the administration in the event of dissolution.