Additional chief secretary Dinesh Waghmare has been made the head of Maharashtra commission
Most of the local bodies in the state are overdue for elections. File pic
In an indication that the local body polls will be held soon, the state government filled the vacancy of the state election commissioner (SEC) on Monday, appointing senior bureaucrat Dinesh Waghmare its the head of the commission. His tenure will be of five years.
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Waghmare, a 1994 batch IAS officer, worked as the additional chief secretary of the medical education department. U P S Madan, the previous SEC, retired last September. The state election commission is responsible for conducting the polls to civic bodies, zilla parishad, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats.
Dinesh Waghmare, Maharashtra state election commissioner. Pic/MahaTransco
People in the know said that the appointment could be seen as the beginning of the election process. Most local bodies in the state are overdue for elections and are administered by the respective commissioners and chief executive officers. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election was scheduled for February 2022, but it didn’t take place, like most others, because of the legal cases being heard by the Supreme Court.
The apex court is hearing petitions regarding the other backward class reservation, the reorganisation of wards and the (increased/decreased) number of elected representatives of local bodies. The next hearing is expected to be held on January 28.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had indicated a few days ago that the local body elections will likely take place in April-May this year, saying that the government would do its best to get the legal ground cleared for holding the polls.
Local body polls are generally considered mini Assembly elections, which give political parties an opportunity to fathom their individual strength at the local level where their workers prefer to contest the polls without having an alliance with the parties that share power at the state and Central level. Most ruling and Opposition parties have been talking about going solo in the forthcoming elections.
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