Patna HC cancels urban local body elections

Patna, Oct 4 The Patna High Court on Tuesday cancelled the elections for the urban local bodies in Bihar.

The court said the Bihar government and the state Election Commission violated the directives of the Supreme Court pertaining to reservation of seats for OBCs and EBCs.

The Supreme Court has directed every state to form an OBC and EBC commission to identify the reasons for people's backwardness in the country. The Bihar government has not made any attempt to identify the reasons behind social, financial, educational and service related backwardness, and accordingly set parameters to provide reservations to them.

Under the City Act of Bihar (CAB) 2007, the court believes that the state government and the Election Commission have not followed the directives of the Supreme Court to declare reserved seats for OBC and EBC constituencies.

"The order of the high court described that whatever reservation is given to OBCs and EBCs, it is only due to the BJP. Our former deputy chief minister Tar Kishore Prasad was making a roster for the reservation of OBCs and EBCs during his tenure. That roaster was overturned by CM Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav. They have announced polls for the urban local bodies in a hurry. They have also issued the notification a day after the announcement," said Sanjay Jailwal, the state president of BJP.