PATNA: The Bihar government has urged the Centre to add panchs and sarpanchs, which are directly elected by the people for panchayati raj institutions (PRIs), as electors from local bodies constituencies for the state legislative council polls, said panchayati raj minister Samrat Chaudhary.

“The Union law minister will consider the proposal and, if approved, it would need the Prime Minister’s Office’s nod for the necessary legal sanction,” said Chaudhary, adding that the proposal was sent to the Centre early this week through a proper channel.

The state government has sent the proposal at a time when the Election Commission of India (ECI) is to take a call on holding the long-pending legislative council polls to elect representatives from 24 local bodies constituencies from across the state.

The 24 legislative council seats have been lying vacant since July last year as the crucial panchayat elections had to be delayed owing to the impact of Covid pandemic. Elected representatives of rural local bodies such as gram panchayats, panchayat samities and zila parishads, constitute a sizable chunk of electors, besides elected members of the urban local bodies and members of parliament and the legislative assembly.

“The size of electors would go up significantly once panchs and sarpanchs also get the power to franchise. The state currently has about 1.13 lakh panchs, which equals the number of ward members of panchayats. Similarly, there are 8072 sarpanchs, which are the same in the numbers of Mukhias, who have the right to vote,” said the minister.

Currently, there are around 1.4 lakh electors for local bodies’ seats of the legislative council. Apart from that, elected representatives of 14 municipal corporations, 89 nagar parishads (municipal councils) and 153 nagar panchayats (town councils) will also exercise their franchise in the upcoming election. “Some of the urban local bodies (ULBs), which came into existence after reorganisation of the wards, are to be reconstituted,” said a former MLC, aspiring to contest the elections, adding that elected members of the cantonment boards also do cast their votes.