Election fever is back in Tamil Nadu as the state has been directed to conduct the local body polls in the nine newly-formed districts. The Supreme Court has on Tuesday has ordered the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission to hold the local body elections for the nine newly-formed districts by September 15. The order has come one and half years after the local body polls held in the state apart from the nine districts. 

In the period of 2019-2020, the previous Tamil Nadu government has established nine new districts in the state and the local body polls didn't hold in these districts by citing the delimitation process where the government demarcates the limits of the local bodies including village panchayats and municipal corporations. Apart from these nine districts, the state election commission had issued a notification to conduct the local body elections in the remaining districts.  

However, the DMK, which then was the opposition party, had moved to the Supreme Court to seek the directive to quash the notification issued by the state election commission on December 7, 2019, to conduct the local body polls. The DMK had alleged that the election commission didn't provide quota for women, SC, and ST candidates in the elections as per the 2011 census and it was using the census taken in 1991 for this purpose.

While the DMK fought against the election notification, the government had conducted the local body polls across the state excluding the nine newly-created districts. Apart from these nine, the rest of the districts had elected the office-bearers for the local bodies and the hearing was at the apex court. On Tuesday, the case has come up before a vacation bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, which then had directed to conduct the local body polls in the nine districts. 

The vacation bench had ordered the state election commission to issue notification for holding elections to the local bodies and declaring the results by September 15. It had noted the order issued by the apex court on December 11, 2019, and said that instead of four months given to hold the elections, the election commission has taken 18 months and didn't hold the elections. 

The apex court bench had also noted that the tenure of the local bodies has expired in 2018-2019 and since then, there are no new elected representatives in these districts and pressed that the state election commission must be brought under contempt of action if the poll body refuses to comply with the court order. The bench said, "It will be better if you hold the elections by September 15 or we will initiate contempt action for non-compliance." 

Appearing for the Election Commission of India, Advocate SP Narasimha said that the 2019 order of the apex court could not be implemented as priority was given to the Assembly elections in the state and the focus was then shifted to West Bengal Assembly elections. He further noted that the state is still recording more COVID-19 infections and time should be given to hold the elections in these nine districts. 

The bench said that COVID-19 has now become an excuse in every other matter and elections are conducted based on the wish of the political parties. Narasimha had stated that the Indian Election Commission doesn't have any motive of non-compliance with the court's order and added that the state will first have to conduct the delimitation exercise in these nine districts, then issue notification for elections and hold the polls and it may need more time. 

However, the apex court bench had refused to give more time to the state election commission and directed it to conducted the local body polls in nine districts and declare the results by September 15. According to reports, with the order, the election battle will be back in the state, months after the crucial assembly polls. There is a major power shift in the state where DMK took over the reign with a landslide victory by defeating the ADMK. 

The pressure is on for the DMK to conduct the local body polls in these nine districts within September 15 as per the Supreme Court's order. Though most of the legislative constituencies in these nine districts were won by the DMK-led alliance, the campaign trail for the local body polls will be a real test for the DMK government. The apex court had in 2019 given four months' time to the state election commission to conduct the local body polls in nine districts after completing the delimitation and reservation. However, the elections didn't take place as ordered due to which the apex court had issued a fresh order to the election commission to conduct the polls by September 15.