The Gujarat Election Commission has postponed the municipal and panchayat elections due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The elections for local bodies of self-governance including six municipal corporations, 55 municipalities, 31 district and 231 taluka panchayats were scheduled to be held in November.
After taking stock of the pandemic situation, the Commission has announced that the polls would be postponed for three months.
Now, the elections for civic bodies of Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar and the district panchayats will be held in 2021.
Even after three months, the Commission would review the situation and will decide whether to further delay the polls or hold them.
According to sources, the government is likely to appoint administrators for the local bodies once the term of their elected wings is over.
“It is not possible to hold the local elections because the entire machinery is involved in handling the pandemic,” a State government official said.
