Lucknow Municipal Corporation House to be dissolved if ULB polls not held before Jan 20

By: Himanshu Singh
LUCKNOW: If the urban local body (ULB) elections are not held before January 20 next year, the existing House of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation will stand dissolved and the mayor's term will also end. In such a situation, the government will have to appoint an administrator to run the daily affairs of LMC till the polls are held.
In the past, whenever ULB elections could not be held on time, the then municipal commissioners were asked by the government to work as administrators.For example, Shailesh Kumar Singh acted as administrator from February 23 to April 13, 2012 and Nagendra Prasad Singh from April 14 to July 14, 2012, due to delay in polls in 2012.
Similarly, Uday Raj Singh was administrator and did the job from August 11 to December 12, 2017. Now, it seems, the polls will be delayed for the third consecutive time.
The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court had on Tuesday asked the government to conduct elections without reservations for other backward classes (OBC). It struck down the state government's formula of OBC reservation and directed it to conduct the elections by January 31 after notifying the backward classes seats as general category seats for these polls.
However, the UP government on Wednesday set up a five-member commission to conduct a survey of the municipal bodies to assess the political backwardness of OBCs on the basis of which quota for backward classes could be fixed in the ULB polls. The government has also decided to appeal against the HC order in the Supreme Court.
"Under these circumstances, it is unlikely that the elections can be held before the term of current House and mayor expires, because it will take time for the commission to carry out its assessment. Therefore, it is expected that the commissioner would be appointed as the administrator by January 20," a senior LMC official said.
He pointed out that as per the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act, 1959, section 14 1 (A), whenever a mayor's post gets vacant or she/he has to resign from the post, the state government has the authority to appoint an administrator in her/his position to act on her/his behalf.
"An administrator could be the district magistrate (DM), divisional commissioner or municipal commissioner. It could also be a committee headed by the DM. However, the administrator will discharge only day-to-day functions and shall not take any major policy decision," he said.