As
per the directions of the Supreme Court,  elections to municipal
councils and corporations should be completed within four months of the
release of the 2011 census data. The data was released on April 30,
which means the elections should be completed by the end of August.

“We
will complete the poll process to municipalities by August. The State
Election Commission is well prepared for it,” state election
commissioner P Ramakanth Reddy told reporters here on Tuesday.

He
said elections to panchayats, MPTCs and ZPTCs would be completed within
17 days of the state government notifying reservation of seats in local
bodies.

Elections will be conducted to panchayat raj bodies as per
the census of 2011. The State Election Commission (SEC) has already
worked out the reservation as per the 2001 census. But, since the
government has decided to take the 2011 census into consideration, the
reservation for SCs, STs and BCs would change in several villages, 
Reddy said.

Though there was population figures in the census, the
rural areas mentioned in the census should be interpreted in terms of
rural areas for panchayat elections. The government would fix
reservation as per the rural population and send it to the directorate
of economics and statistics for approval. Only after that will the
government finalise the reservation for SCs, STs and BCs.

Government
officials informed the SEC that they would finalise the caste-based
quota and issue a gazette notification by the end of this month. “After
the gazette notification is issued, the SEC will be able to complete the
whole process of elections to panchayat raj bodies within 17 days,”
Ramakanth Reddy said, indicating

that elections to panchayat raj bodies would be completed in June.

After conducting panchayat raj elections in June, the SEC will conduct elections to municipalities by the end of August.

If
the government first issues notification finalising the reservation for
gram panchayat elections, the SEC will conduct elections to panchayats.
If reservation for MPTCs and ZPTCs is notified first, then the SEC will
conduct elections to ZPTCs and MPTCs first.

Ramakanth Reddy said
gram panchayat elections would be conducted without party symbols but
MPTC and ZPTC elections would be conducted on party lines.

Gram panchayat elections would be conducted in three phases, and MPTC and ZPTC elections in two phases.

Ramakanth
Reddy held a regional-level meeting with Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda
district officials to assess the preparedness of revenue, panchayat raj
and police officials to conduct panchayat raj elections. Regional 
conferences have been held recently in Visakhapatnam, Eluru, Guntur,
Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar, Tirupati and Warangal.