An analysis of public data on India’s urban local bodies has found that most of them have polls pending and little power to impact governance.

In a report titled “Delays in Urban Local Government Elections in India: Analysis and Reform Pathways”, Bengaluru-based NGO Janaagraha recommended constitutional changes and cited the One Nation One Election plan as an opportunity for urban governance reforms.

Citing the comptroller and auditor general’s compendium of audits last year on the implementation of the 74th amendment, which gave constitutional status to urban bodies, the Janaagraha report says: “61 per cent of ULGs across 17 states experienced election delays…. According to the CAG, delays range from 7 months (Delhi) to 24 months (Gurugram) to 55 months (Bengaluru)”.

The average delay in conducting polls in 2020-21 was 22 months.

The causes for delay are two-fold.

“Unscheduled or delayed actions by state governments which may affect the election schedule adversely: Amending election rules, altering ULG boundaries through mergers, splits, or additions of Gram Panchayats, identifying the quantum of reservations and their distribution across ULGs. States obtain electoral rolls from the Election Commission of India and adapt for ULGs — a process that takes considerable time and creates scheduling bottlenecks according to some state election commissioners,” the report says.

Eight of the 34 state election commissions that conduct these polls are not empowered to carry out delimitation of wards.