Ranchi: The Jharkhand State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, January 27, announced that civic polls to 48 urban local bodies in the state, including Ranchi, will be held on February 23.
The counting of votes will take place on February 27.
“The voting for the civic polls to 48 urban local bodies in the state will be held in a single phase on February 23,” State Election Commissioner Alka Tiwari said while issuing a notification in this regard.
The nomination process will start on January 29 and will continue till February 4, she said.
The nominations will be scrutinised on February 5, while candidates can withdraw their names till February 6. The symbols will be allotted on February 7, she said.
Over 43.33 lakh voters, including 21.26 lakh women, are eligible to exercise their franchise in the elections to 1,087 wards in nine municipal corporations, 20 nagar parishads and 19 nagar panchayats.
“The elections for the mayor or chairman posts, and ward councillors will be held directly, while the deputy mayors and vice chairmen will be elected indirectly,” Tiwari said.
ULB polls in Jharkhand are not contested on the electoral symbols of the political parties, but candidates are backed by the outfits.
In 2018, the ULB elections for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor of municipal corporations, and chairman and vice chairman of municipal councils, were held on party lines.
After coming to power in 2019, the Hemant Soren government changed the rules and decided to conduct the ULB polls on a non-party basis.
The Congress, a constituent of the JMM-led ruling alliance, and the main opposition BJP had demanded that the government hold the elections on a party basis.
The model code of conduct (MCC) across 48 urban local bodies, excluding panchayats and cantonment areas, came into force after the issuance of the election notification.
The voting will be conducted using ballot papers and there will be no option for NOTA, Tiwari said.
She said proper security arrangements will be ensured to hold the polls peacefully at 4,304 polling booths.
“Of the total polling booths, 896 have been identified as hyper-sensitive and 2,445 as sensitive,” she added.
The commission has also fixed expenditure limits for the candidates contesting for the post of mayor or chairman and ward councilors in the elections.
According to the SEC notification, a candidate contesting for the post of mayor in municipal corporations having over 10 lakh population can spend up to Rs 25 lakh. The limit is Rs 15 lakh for the municipal corporations with a population of less than 10 lakh.
Similarly, the expenditure limit is between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh for the candidates contesting for the post of chairman in nagar parishads and nagar panchayats based on the population size.
The candidates contesting for the posts of ward councilors can spend Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh based on the population size, it added.
The Jharkhand High Court had earlier slammed the state government over the delay in conducting the local body polls.
The commission, in November 2025, outlined before the high court a timeline of eight weeks for completing the formalities and issuing the notification for the election.
Elections to 14 ULBs have been due since May 2020, while polls to the remaining 34 ULBs have been due since April 2023.
All civic bodies are currently under the administrative control of government officials.
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