Electoral violence and unopposed elections undermine the promise of the 74th Constitutional Amendment. Analyse.

The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 added Part IXA to the Constitution. It gave urban local bodies (ULBs) constitutional status, regular elections, and an independent State Election Commission (SEC) to run them (Art. 243ZA) [2]. In October 2026, the YSRCP told the Supreme Court that 63.5% of its candidates had been "physically blocked" from filing nominations in Andhra Pradesh's ULB polls [1]. Violence of this kind empties out the Amendment's promise of genuine urban self-government.

How violence and unopposed wins undermine Part IXA

• Representation: When rivals are blocked, candidates win unopposed. Voters lose their choice without a single vote being cast.
• Legitimacy: A council formed through coercion lacks a real mandate. The SC called the right to file nominations "a facet of free and fair elections" [1].
• SEC independence: The Governor appoints the State Election Commissioner on the state government's advice (Art. 243K) [2]. In 2020, Andhra Pradesh issued an ordinance that cut the sitting SEC's term short. The High Court struck it down [3].
• Administrative capacity: The SEC has no force of its own. It relies on state police who report to the same government, and police had to be deployed in Pulivendula [1].
• Remedy gap: Art. 243ZG allows a municipal election to be challenged only by a post-poll election petition [2]. That comes too late to bring back a contest that never happened.

Violence → Blocked nominations → Unopposed wins → Councils without a mandate → Weak urban self-government

Fig: How poll violence hollows out Part IXA

Safeguards that still work

• An SEC can be removed only in the same way as a High Court judge (Art. 243K) [2].
• Calibrated judicial review: The SC moved the final-list date by only four days (21 to 25 October) and left the decision on reopening nominations to the SEC [1].

Way forward

• Choose SECs through an independent selection panel, similar to the committee in the CEC and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023 [4].
• Set a standing rule to reopen nominations wherever obstruction is documented, and hold back results in disputed unopposed wards until the complaints are checked.
• Lay down a clear judicial test for stepping in before the poll, so that Art. 243ZG's purpose is preserved.

Electoral violence and coerced unopposed wins therefore weaken three pillars of Part IXA: representation, legitimacy and SEC independence. Securing the nomination stage, making SECs independent and providing timely remedies can make ULBs the genuine third tier that the 74th Amendment intended. This would also advance SDG 16's goal of inclusive, participatory decision-making.