BENGALURU: For the first time, members of zilla and taluk panchayats will not vote in the December 10 legislative council elections to 25 seats.
Reason: There are no elected representatives in 229 taluk and 30 zilla panchayats. All members of rural and urban local bodies are voters in these elections. Thanks to the government’s decision to set up a delimitation commission to redraw boundaries of wards of zilla and taluk panchayats, the power earlier was with the state election commission .
By not holding taluk and zilla panchayat elections, around 5,000 elected representatives have been denied voting rights. The panchayat and urban local bodies elections are not being conducted on time for the past few years owing to political reasons.
The tenure of the sitting members of zilla and taluk panchayats got over in May 2021 but owing to the pandemic, the election commission deferred the elections till September.
