Strengthening grassroots democracy

Delays in local body polls can be avoided with sterner fixing of accountability

- Vignesh Karthik V.R.

It’s been more than two decades since the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments were passed by Parliament, which accorded constitutional status to local administration bodies across India. Yet, the Tamil Nadu government delayed holding rural local body elections, due in 2016, by three years. This unconstitutional delay started when the Madras High Court cancelled the notification put forward by the State government citing irregularities in it. The reasons cited for subsequent postponements revolved around delimitation and carving out new districts.

After resorting to the infamous ordinance route to extend the tenure of the Special Officers of local bodies and some back and forth on the means of electing mayors and municipal chairmen, the State will now see elections being held for rural local bodies alone in two phases on December 27 and 30. The elections to urban local bodies are expected to be notified soon, which in itself raises questions on the constitutional and moral validity of the time gap between rural and urban local body elections. This piece attempts to situate the implications of the delay in the conduct of elections to make a case for the significance of local bodies in the domains of efficacy, inclusiveness, participation and strength of political party structures.

People’s participation