Andhra govt declares 50% reservations for women in municipal elections

Days ahead of the local body elections in the state, the Andhra Pradesh government announced 50% reservation of seats to women, using provisions under the Municipalities Act, 1965 and Municipalities (Reservation of Seats in Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats) Rules, 1995.

While women across the categories were given 50% seats, weaker sections, including Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST)and Backward Classes (BC) were given one-third of the total posts.

A gazette notification issued by the Department of Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) states ST women were given 1 post  while SC women were given 7. Seventeen seats were reserved for BC women while 26 were reserved for women falling under the general category. The reservation was given, based on the population of women under each category.

Twenty six posts were left unreserved in the general category, while 2 were reserved for ST general category,  7 for SC general and 17 for BC general.

While the Centre has not taken a final decision to ensure 50 percent reservation for women in urban local bodies, many states like Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra have decided to take the step to increase the number of elected women in power.

While all the local body elections are set to take place in four phases, municipal elections will be conducted in second phase with voting on March 23 and counting on March 27.

As many as 2.82 crore voters will exercise their franchise in the elections to second and third tier of panchayat raj institutions to be held on March 21 in the first phase.

The five-year term of the local bodies ended in July last year but the elections were delayed as the reservation of seats was not finalised.

Though the government issued an order providing for a total 59.85% quota for SCs, STs and BCs in all local bodies, the High Court struck it down and directed the government to re-do the reservation, restricting the quota to 50%, in line with the Supreme Court orders.

Accordingly, the state government notified the new quota, paving the way for the elections.

As per the new quota, STs will get 6.7%, 19.08% for and 24.15% for BCs. Previously the BC quota was 34%.

With the Andhra State Election Commission issuing election notification on Saturday, the model code of conduct has come into force in the state. The election of council chairpersons takes place following the announcement of poll results.

Elections will be held for all the 660 zilla parishad territorial constituencies and 9,984 out of 10,047 mandal parishad territorial constituencies on March 21 and results will be declared on March 24. Elections to municipalities and municipal corporations would be held on March 23 and results declared on March 27. Elections to gram panchayats will be conducted in two phases on March 27 and 29. 

PTI inputs