Chennai: The local bodies elections in Tamil Nadu are likely to be deferred to early next year, with the state government extending the tenure of the Seventh State Finance Commission till this December end, according to an official on Tuesday.
The civic polls are linked to the Seventh State Finance Commission to determine the financial distribution for local bodies and necessary preparations for the local bodies polls including budget allocation are tied to this assessment, the official said.
The state government has recently issued an order extending the tenure of this commission till December 31, 2026. Its tenure is scheduled to expire on August 31, 2026. Hence, the civic polls are likely to be held in early 2027, it was pointed out.
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It is said that over 90,000 local administrative positions are being managed by special officers whose tenure was periodically being extended.
The previous local bodies elections were held in a single phase on February 19, 2022 for municipal corporations, municipalities, and town panchayats. The rural local bodies elections were held on December 27 and 30 in 2019 across 27 districts, and on October 6, 2021 in the remaining 9 districts including Chengalpattu and Kanchipuram, following delimitation.
In highly concentrated urban centres like Chennai, the boundaries remain frozen for now. According to sources, the Greater Chennai Corporation plans to expand its limits to integrate adjacent village panchayats such as Vanagaram and Adayalampattu have been put on hold. The urban delimitation exercise in the GCC areas has been postponed until the new national census was available.
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