Countdown to Rajasthan Panchayat Polls: Reservation Lottery for 1.4 Lakh Seats Set for Thursday

JAIPUR. The administrative machinery in Rajasthan is gearing up for the final phase of preparations ahead of the upcoming Panchayati Raj elections. Following the determination of quotas for district heads and council members, the focus has now shifted to the grassroots level. On Thursday, authorities will conduct a lottery at the sub-divisional level to finalize the reservation status for 14,403 Sarpanch positions and 130,584 Ward Panch seats across the state.

This exercise is critical for determining the electoral landscape of every gram panchayat. According to the current data, the reservation distribution for Sarpanch posts includes 3,058 seats for Scheduled Tribes, 2,493 for Scheduled Castes, and 1,961 for Other Backward Classes. A similar structured reservation will be applied to the vast number of Ward Panch positions, ensuring that 21,962 seats are allocated to Scheduled Castes, 19,117 to Scheduled Tribes, and approximately 15,000 to the OBC category.

A significant feature of this election cycle is the mandatory 50 percent reservation for women across all categories. This policy ensures that within the SC, ST, OBC, and unreserved segments, half of the designated seats will be reserved for female candidates. The upcoming lottery will provide clarity on which specific gram panchayats will be reserved for these groups, effectively shaping the candidate pool for the local polls.

The reservation framework will function differently in the tribal-dominated districts of Banswara, Dungarpur, Pratapgarh, and Salumber. Due to their status under the Tribal Sub-Plan, all Sarpanch and Ward Panch positions in these four districts are reserved exclusively for the Scheduled Tribe category. Consequently, there are no provisions for SC or OBC reservations in these specific regions, reflecting a distinct electoral approach compared to the rest of the state.

Once the lottery process concludes, the comprehensive data will be submitted to the State Election Commission. This submission is the final hurdle before the formal announcement of the election schedule. With the High Court mandating that the entire electoral process must be completed by November 15, officials expect the notification and nomination phases to commence as early as the first week of October.