Elections to C'garh urban bodies on Dec 21

The 151 urban bodies in Chhattisgarh will go to polls on December 21, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Thakur Ramsingh announced on Monday.

The poll-bound bodies include 10 municipal corporations, 38 municipal councils and 103 nagar panchayats.

Counting of votes, which will be cast through ballot papers, will be taken up on December 24.

Polling will be held along party lines in all the civic bodies, the SEC said.

"With the announcement of the polls, the model code of conduct has come into force in these local governing bodies, including municipal corporations, municipal councils and nagar panchayats," Ramsingh told a press conference here.

Out of the total 2,840 wards, 542 wards fall in municipal corporations, 753 in municipal councils and 1545 in nagar pachayats, he said.

Besides, bypolls will be held for three wards- one in Birgaon municipal corporation and two in Bhilai municipal corporation-- will also be held on December 21.

The gazette notification for the polls will be issued on November 30, he said, adding that candidates can file their nominations from that day itself.

The last date for filing of nomination papers is December 6 while their scrutiny will be done on the next day. The last day of withdrawal of nominations is December 9.

"For general elections, 39,82,601 voters, including 19,93,355 men, 19,88,804 women and 442 third gender are eligible to exercise their franchise, for which 5,406 polling stations will be set up," the SEC said.

For the bypolls, 22,752 voters would be able to cast their votes in the three wards for which 28 polling stations will be set up, he added.

Elaborate security arrangements will be made at all the polling stations to ensure fair and peaceful polling, the SEC said.

He said arrangements are being made for candidates who want to file online nomination (ONNO) to avoid technical errors in the nomination papers.

Chhattisgarh will witness polls to posts of mayors of municipal corporations and chairpersons of other civic bodies in the indirect manner for the first time after it was carved out from Madhya Pradesh in 2000.

The ruling Congress government recently issued a gazette notification on the Chhattisgarh Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019, paving the way for the indirect polls.

As per new rules, general public will directly elect corporators and councillors who will elect mayors and chairpersons from among themselves.