Chennai: At a time when the State Election Commission was set to announce urban local body polls in Tamilnadu, a plea has been filed in the Madras High Court against holding the elections due to Covid-19.
Citing the fast spread of the pandemic and the rising infections in the State, the petition by retired government doctor Nakkeeran sought the Court to issue a direction to the State Election Commission to delay the polls till the situation is brought under control.
It also requested the first bench of the Chief Justice to give an urgent hearing to the petition today or tomorrow. Senior counsel S Prabhakara represented the petitioner before the first bench of Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice P D Audikesavulu. The petition is likely to be taken up for hearing on Friday.
Recently, in a significant decision, the Tamilnadu government has issued orders to reserve the Chennai Mayor post for a woman belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC). It also reserved the Mayor posts in Tambaram and Avadi Municipal Corporations for a SC (Women) and SC (General) respectively.
The Mayor posts in nine Corporations — Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Dindigul, Erode, Kancheepuram, Karur, Madurai, Sivakasi and Vellore have been reserved for Women (General) candidates.
The mainstream political parties in Tamilnadu have commenced the candidate selection process for the upcoming urban local body polls in the State.
The ruling DMK has deputed senior leaders in different parts of the state to shortlist party candidates from the applicants. Sources said more than 50 to 75 applications have been received for each seat and the final shortlisting will be a cumbersome process. Interview for potential candidates had begun in Chennai, Madurai and a few other places before Pongal itself.
According to State Election Commission officials, elections would be held for 21 corporations, 138 municipalities and 490 town panchayats.