SC gives directions for simultaneous polls in TTAADC: Pradyot

Tipra Motha Party founder Pradyot Kishore Debbarman on Wednesday said that the Supreme Court of India had directed the State Election Commission to conduct elections to the Village Committees (VCs) under TTAADC and General Elections to the state’s lone Tribal District Council together simultaneously.

Describing the apex court’s direction as a big victory for Tipra Motha and himself, Debbarman in his official social media handle wrote: “A huge victory for us as the Supreme Court today has directed  the State election commission to conduct VC elections along with the TTAADC Elections simultaneously. 10 years later elections will be conducted at the VC level.”

Debbarman and his party had been complaining of foul play as the elections for the Village Committees of TTAADC which could be equated to Panchayats in the general areas had been due for the last ten years.

However, the nature of the VCs is different from the three-tier panchayat system as it essentially relies on a single-tier governance system. The tenure of the last elected VCs expired in 2016 and since then the elections had been pending.

Initially, it was presumed that the polls had been delayed because of the Covid pandemic and later on no initiatives had been undertaken by the state election commission to conduct the polls.

In the meantime, Tipra Motha Party which was elected to power in TTAADC in 2021 is set to complete its five years tenure and the general elections to the District Council are set to be conducted in April this year.

The number of total Village Committees in TTAADC stands at 587 while the total number of seats in the Council stands at 28. According to officials in the TTAADC, the nature in which the polling is conducted is also different from each other. The general elections are held with the use of EVMs and the elections to the VCs are conducted through postal ballots.