SEC starts civic poll process for 9 districts

The poll officials also fixed January 30 as the polling day for vacant local body posts due through the indirect elections. According to TNSEC sources, indirect elections for 355 posts, including the chairperson of district panchayat and office bearers to panchayat union will be held on January 30. By the first week of February, a final decision on the remaining nine districts will be taken, sources said.

Elections will have to be conducted for 26,999 posts of the RLBs in 9 districts and 12,820 posts of the ULBs. The third phase is likely to focus on the rural local bodies in nine districts. Till now no concrete decision on municipalities and mayor elections have been decided, the poll officials quipped. It may be noted that the Centre has been denying the performance and the basic grants for the local bodies in the state since 2016 due to nonexistence of elected councils.