Over the past two years, elections for the Kheda and Banaskantha district panchayats, 17 taluka panchayats, 75 municipalities, and 539 new village panchayats totalling 4,765 elections have not been conducted in Gujarat.

Following a court order, 27% OBC reservation has been implemented for these elections, and the notification process is ongoing in both the urban development and panchayat departments. 

A draft notification was also released some time ago, but it is currently undergoing revisions and updates and a final draft with the changes will be presented soon.

Sources in  the State Election Commission have indicated that once they receive the final notification draft from the relevant departments, new voter lists will be issued for the local self-government institutions. This process could take one to one-and-a-half months. After the completion of this process, the election commission will announce the elections.

Consequently, there is a possibility that these elections may occur in December-January. In addition to the municipalities and panchayats where elections have been overdue, there are also 84 vacant seats – 42 in urban areas and 42 in panchayats which will be filled by bye-elections. 

Sources have also confirmed that any upcoming local self-government elections will feature a total of 48% reserved seats, including 27% for OBCs, 7% for SCs, and 14% for STs.

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27% OBC reservation in local govt institutes declared in Gujarat