Kerala poll body to move SC over conducting local elections on basis of 2019 voters list

Kerala Election Commissioner V Bhaskaran on Saturday said that the state poll body will approach the Supreme Court against the decision of the Kerala High Court to conduct the upcoming local bodies elections based on the 2019 Lok Sabha voters list and, not the 2015 list used for local polls that year.

Bhaskaran told the media that they will inform the SC about the practical difficulties in conducting polls based on the 2019 voters list. He added that if the elections need to be conducted in this manner, then an additional Rs 10 crore would be needed to recast the 2019 voters list and prepare it for the upcoming local bodies polls. The said appeal will be filed to the SC on Monday.

The new local bodies in Kerala have to assume office latest by November.

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An appeal in HC against the 2019 voters list

Earlier, the Congress-led UDF had approached a single bench of the Kerala High Court on the use of the 2019 voters list, but the court ruled out from interfering in the matter as the poll process had already begun.

The UDF appealed against the decision, after which the division bench on Thursday overruled the High Court's verdict.

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The Kerala government and the State Election Commission had stated that they would prefer the 2015 voters list as using the 2019 list incurs a lot of expenditure as local polls were held on the basis of wards in contrast with assembly polling booths in other elections.

Earlier, the ruling CPI-M-led Left government had also agreed with the UDF on using the 2019 voters list, but later they backed out and agreed to hold the elections based on the 2015 voters list.

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(with inputs from agencies)

(Image: PTI)