UP Panchayat Polls 2025: Base Year Decision To Shape Reservation Roster For Over 57,000 Seats

Uttar Pradesh's Panchayat elections, scheduled for April and May next year, hinge on the determination of a base year for the reservation system. A proposal for this will likely be sent to the cabinet by the end of this month by the Panchayati Raj Department.

The base year is critical because seats reserved for a particular category in the base year will generally not be reserved for the same category in the 2026 elections. For instance, in the 2021 elections, 2015 was considered the base year, meaning seats reserved for a specific category in 2015 were not reserved for that category in 2021. The decision on whether 2021, 2015, or an earlier year will serve as the base for the 2026 elections is pending. While the percentage of reservations for SC-ST is based on the 2011 census, it is anticipated that the base year will be either 2015 or 2021.

The reservation rotation typically follows this order: Scheduled Tribe women, Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Caste women, Scheduled Castes, Backward Class women, Backward Class, and women.

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Uttar Pradesh has 75 District Panchayats, 826 Kshetra Panchayats, and 57,691 Gram Panchayats. For instance, to reserve Gram Pradhan posts for Scheduled Castes in a block, villages will be ranked in descending order of their Scheduled Caste population. Posts will then be allocated to those Gram Panchayats that were not reserved for Scheduled Castes in the chosen base year.

Experts suggest approximately 300 Gram Pradhan posts will be reserved for Scheduled Tribes, 12,000 for Scheduled Castes, and around 15,500 for Backward Classes, based on their population percentages. Similarly, 16 District Panchayat President posts will be reserved for SC and 20 for OBC. For Kshetra Panchayat Chiefs, 5 seats will be for ST, 171 for SC, and 223 for OBC. Overall, 33 percent of all posts will be reserved for women.