Hearing on 552 objections challenging prabhag plan begins

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The State Election Commission (SEC) has released the draft prabhag plan for the upcoming municipal corporation elections. Aspiring candidates and various political parties have raised objections, totalling as many as 552. The hearing will begin on Wednesday (Sept 10) at 10 am at the Maulana Azad Research Centre, Majnu Hill. The secretary of the Women and Child Development Department, Anupkumar Yadav, has been appointed for this process.

For the first time, elections in the city will be held according to the prabhag (cluster of wards) system. Until now, six municipal corporation elections had been conducted under the traditional ward (single-ward) method. In this new system, some wards have been made geographically very large—one ward stretches up to 15 km from one end to the other. Besides, one prabhag has been formed by dividing 15 wards. Hence the number of objections has increased significantly.

All objectors have been informed about the date, time, and venue of the hearing through letters and text messages. The hearing process is scheduled to be completed in a single day, but if required, it will continue on the next day (Sept 11), according to Deputy Commissioner (Election Branch) Vikas Nawale.

After the hearing, the SEC will make corrections in the draft wherever errors are found and then publish the final prabhag plan. The most crucial step after this will be social reservation. The reservation will be applied in descending order. Until this process is completed, no political party can predict the election outcome.