Dismissing criticism over the ongoing delay in conducting the local body elections in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisami pointed out that it is the state election commission that has requested for more time and not the government. He further added that the polls will be conducted in three months and that the AIADMK has always been ready to face the election.
On Saturday, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, the government of Tamil Nadu reiterated its inability to conduct local body elections in the state, this time due to non-availability of district administration due to the ongoing parliamentary polls. Tamil Nadu’s local body elections were due in 2016 and have been delayed for various reasons, including a red alert issued before Cyclone Gaja in November 2018. The state government of Tamil Nadu has submitted the reasons for a possible further delay in conducting local body polls. This included - time lost in getting the soft copies of the current Electoral Roll from ECI for handing over to National Informatics Centre, non-availability of the district administration machineries due to Parliamentary elections and present status of the delimitation process.
"We are not continuously asking for delays in the elections. There are just 90 days in three months and there are already elections(bye-polls) underway. It is the state election commission that has requested for time not the state government," said the Chief Minister. "The AIADMK has always been ready to face elections even during Puratchi Thalaivi's (Jayalalithaa's) rule. We had even called in for candidates to apply but it was the DMK that went to court and stopped the election. Following that other issue came up. The election will happen in three months," he confirmed.
The local body elections were supposed to take place in October 2016 but were stalled by the Madras High Court after the DMK questioned the manner in which the entire process was carried out. Immediately after that, the state government began ward delimitation works based on the 2011 census. Due to this delay, Tamil Nadu has been functioning without 200 ward councillors and 12,524 panchayat leaders in the state.
The government in its affidavit to the SC however denied that the the absence of local body representatives has stalled the development works in rural sectors in Tamil Nadu and stated that is had made alternate arrangements to compensate for the absence. Describing that Tamil Nadu has not, in the past, shied away from undertaking its responsibilities as detailed in the Constitution of India, the affidavit stated that the reason for not conducting the polls in 2016 was due to the pressing need for delimitation of wards according to the 2011 census.