Haryana municipal polls on June 19

Election to the state’s 28 municipal committees and 18 municipal councils will be held on June 19 and the results will be declared on June 22, Haryana’s State Election Commissioner (SEC) Dhanpat Singh announced on Monday.

The SEC said that following the announcement of the election schedule, the model code of conduct is now in force, and added that elections to the Faridabad Municipal Corporation and three other small municipalities will be held later as the revision of the voters’ list is still in progress.

Singh said that candidates who want to contest the election can file nomination papers from May 30 to June 4 (except June 2, which is a public holiday), and the scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on June 6. Candidates can withdraw their candidature until June 7 from 11am to 3pm. Election symbols will be allotted to the candidates on the same day.

“This time, due to the likelihood of extreme weather conditions, polling time has been extended by one hour -- from 7am to 6pm. If required, re-polling will take place on June 21,” he said.

The SEC said that about 10,000 polling personnel, including returning officers, assistant returning officers, and supervisory staff will be deployed for the smooth conduct of these elections. Besides police deployment at sensitive and hypersensitive booths (evaluated based on local intelligence), elaborate arrangements are being made for the conduct of elections in a free, fair, transparent, and peaceful manner. Adequate police force shall be deployed to maintain law and order at the polling stations and extra police force will be provided in sensitive and hypersensitive areas, he said.

The SEC said the expenditure limits of candidates contesting the seats of president and members of both the municipal council and the municipal committee have been revised. As per the revision, the election expenditure limit for a candidate contesting for a seat of the president, municipal committee, has been fixed at ₹10.5 lakh, which was earlier ₹10 lakh. Likewise, the election expenditure limit for a candidate contesting for a seat of the president, municipal council, has been fixed at ₹16 lakh, which was earlier ₹15 lakh.

The election expenditure limit for a candidate contesting for a seat of a member, municipal committee, has been increased from ₹2.25 lakh to ₹2.50 lakh. The election expenditure limit for a candidate contesting for a seat of a member, municipal council, has been increased from ₹3.30 lakh to ₹3.50 lakh, he said.

According to the rules, the required educational qualification for a candidate contesting for the seat of president as well as member in the unreserved category is being a Class 10 graduate. For candidates contesting for the seat of president as well as member in the women and the SC categories, the required educational qualification is being a Class 8 graduate. Women candidates belonging to the SC category contesting for the post of president should have passed Class 8, while those contesting the election for the post of member should have passed Class 5.