suparjya swain 
Bhubaneswar: The State Election Commission (SEC) of Odisha has officially initiated the process for by-elections to fill 1,134 vacant posts across the three-tier Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in the state. This includes both by-elections and fresh elections, as per an official statement released by the Commission.
The upcoming by-polls will cover five Zilla Parishad (ZP) member seats, 41 Panchayat Samiti member positions, 45 Sarpanch posts, and 272 ward member positions. In addition, fresh elections will be held in 771 wards across various gram panchayats.
These 771 wards, previously reserved for specific categories, did not receive any nominations during the last panchayat elections in 2022. Following this, the respective district collectors carried out the process of de-reservation, paving the way for fresh polls in these areas.
The SEC has outlined a detailed schedule for the electoral roll preparation process. Between April 17 and 22, the splitting of electoral rolls from the latest list prepared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) will take place. Subsequently, the ward-wise preliminary electoral rolls will be published on April 24 at the respective gram panchayat headquarters.
Citizens will have the opportunity to file objections and claims regarding the preliminary rolls until April 30. The SEC has set the period between May 2 and May 5 for the disposal of these objections. The final electoral rolls will be published on May 6.
The by-election process is seen as a key step toward strengthening grassroots democracy and ensuring proper representation in local self-governance institutions across Odisha.
