CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu’s local body elections are likely to be deferred to early next year, with the state government extending the tenure of the seventh State Finance Commission till this December end, an official said on Tuesday.

The civic polls are linked to the seventh State Finance Commission to determine the financial distribution for local bodies and necessary preparations for the local body polls, including budget allocation, are tied to this assessment, the official said.

The state government had recently issued an order extending the tenure of the commission till December 31, 2026. The tenure was scheduled to expire on August 31. Hence, the civic polls are likely to be held in early 2027, it was pointed out.

The previous local body elections were held in a single phase on February 19, 2022 for municipal corporations, municipalities, and town panchayats. The elections to rural local bodies were held on December 27 and 30 in 2019 across 27 districts, and on October 6, 2021, in the remaining nine districts, including Chengalpattu and Kancheepuram, following delimitation.

In highly concentrated urban centres like Chennai, the boundaries remain frozen for now. Sources said the Greater Chennai Corporation’s plan to expand its limits to integrate adjacent panchayats such as Vanagaram and Adayalampattu have been put on hold. The delimitation exercise in the GCC areas has been postponed until the new national census is available.