India News | MP Civic Poll Decision to Be Taken Keeping in Mind Pandemic

Sagar (MP), Jun 6 (PTI) The Madhya Pradesh government will take a decision on polls to urban bodies keeping in mind a possible third wave of COVID-19, state minister Bhupendra Singh said on Sunday.

The state urban development minister also said the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government had decided that the mayor would be selected by corporators and not elected directly by the public.

"The state government's priority is to tackle a possible third wave of coronavirus. After this, a decision will be taken on holding urban bodies' polls," he told PTI.

Singh said a bill was prepared for election of mayors directly by the public but it was withdrawn.

"Now, the mayor will be selected by corporators and not directly by the public," the minister added.

While mayors were being elected directly for the past two decades, the system was changed by the previous Congress government under Kamal Nath and the BJP intends to continue with it.

Queried on the High Court's directive on reservation by rotation in connection with civic polls, Singh said the state government had not decided whether to accept it or go in appeal.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)