Draft electoral rolls for Telangana Gram panchayats to be out

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Election Commission on Tuesday, August 26, directed all District Panchayat Officers in the state to prepare and display the draft photo electoral rolls of Gram Panchayats by August 28 and to release the final versions by September 2.

All district and mandal-level officials have been instructed to prepare and display electoral rolls at gram panchayats and mandal parishads on August 28.

Subsequently, a meeting will be held with representatives of political parties at district level on August 29, followed by a mandal-level meeting on August 30.

Voters will be able to file objections related to the re-arrangement of Assembly constituency voters into ward-wise Gram Panchayat electoral rolls between August 28 and 30.

The District Panchayat Officer has been instructed to dispose of all objections by August 31, following which the final ward-wise photo electoral rolls will be published on September 2.

The final electoral rolls will be made with reference to the Assembly Constituency Electoral Rolls as of July 1, 2025, as the qualifying date.

High Court’s order on local body polls

The Telangana High Court on June 25 directed the state government to conduct local body elections by September 30 in response to petitions filed by former sarpanches seeking the conduct of elections without delay.

The petitioners had pointed out that the terms of the panchayats expired on January 31, 2024, and the elections were already delayed by 18 months. They also submitted to the court that the state government in October last year had given an undertaking that the elections would be conducted by February 25, but it failed to fulfil it.