Panchayat Polls: SEC Begins Process, Draft Electoral Rolls On Sept. 6

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Election Commission (TSEC) has initiated the process for conducting elections to gram panchayats. The TSEC on Wednesday released the schedule for updating electoral rolls for holding elections.

State election commissioner C. Parthasarathi held a meeting with panchayat raj secretary Lokesh Kumar, commissioner Anita Ramachandran, Dr. Patil Sangramsingh Ganpatrao, additional director general, Centre for Good Governance and TSEC officials to discuss the revision of electoral rolls.

As per the schedule, draft electoral rolls should be displayed at all gram panchayat and mandal parishad offices on September 6. Meetings should be conducted with representatives of political parties at the district level on September 9 and at the mandal-level the next day

Objections on draft electoral rolls, if any, should be received from September 7 to 13. After verification, officials should dispose of objections by September 19 and final electoral rolls should be published and displayed on September 21.

The five-year tenure of gram panchayats ended in February. However, the state government failed to conduct elections due to Assembly elections in November-December 2023 and Lok Sabha polls in May.

The state government appointed special officers in the place of sarpanchs after their term expired in February. Since then, gram panchayats are being run by special officers.