While several state governments are avoiding holding of local body polls on one or other plea for years together, in Andhra Pradesh, the Chandrababu Naidu-led coalition government is preparing to shock the opposition leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy by holding three months ahead of schedule.
The State Election Commission has already started preparations for this. According to the law, there is a provision to hold local body elections three months before the end of the five-year term. Based on those provisions, the Election Commission has decided to hold the elections in January 2026.
State Election Commissioner Neelam Sawhney has sent letters to the commissioners of the Panchayati Raj and Municipal departments in this regard and directed them to start arrangements immediately. The term of the current sarpanchs will end in April 2026. At the same time, the term of the corporators and councilors in the municipal corporations, municipal corporations, and city panchayats will end in March 2026.
This means that there is not much difference between the terms of these two key local bodies. Therefore, the Election Commission has decided to make plans from now to complete the election process before the end of the term. The State Election Commission has started the exercise to complete the process of re-division of wards and reservations by October 15, 2025, and to prepare and publish ward-wise voters’ lists by October 16 to November 15.
The appointment of election officers should be made by November 1 to 15. The finalization of polling stations and the collection and preparation of EVMs should be completed by November 16 to 30. The reservation should be finalized by December 15, Meetings should be held with political parties in the last week of December and suggestions should be received.
It has been decided to issue the election notification in January 2026, conduct polling in the same month and declare the results. Similarly, Neelam Sawhney has made it clear that arrangements will have to be made for elections to Gram Panchayats from January 2026 and to MPTC/ZPTC from July. With this, these elections will become prestigious for the alliance and YSRCP.