The Supreme Court will hear on December 5 a plea by Tamil Nadu’s main opposition party, DMK against the election commission (EC) notification to hold local body polls in the state. The DMK has claimed that no proper delimitation exercise has taken place and the EC hasn’t complied with other requisite formalities too.

After a delay of three years, the State Election Commission announced the dates for rural local body polls in Tamil Nadu. The polls will be held in two phases on December 27 and December 30. The poll dates for urban local bodies, however, will be announced later, said Tamil Nadu State Election Commissioner R Palaniswamy, citing administrative reasons. According to the announcement made by the State Election Commission on Monday, the counting for the rural local body polls across Tamil Nadu to elect representatives for village panchayats will be on January 2. The EC also announced that the first representatives’ meeting will be held on January 6.

In November, the DMK had moved the Supreme Court asking the government to carry out a delimitation exercise in view of wards in newly-created districts in the state (Tenkasi, Kallakurichi, Tirupattur, Ranipet and Chengalpet). The party has expressed concerns about confusion in the conduct of polls even as the Chief Minister has said that the creation of these new districts had no bearing as polls will take place per last year’s reclassification of wards.

—India Legal Bureau