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Even as the panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh are likely to be deferred for six months due to the coronavirus pandemic, the State Election Commission has announced to go for electoral roll revision from October 1.
The panchayat polls are due in December this year.
Though there is no official word about the postponement of panchayat polls, the announcement of roll revision itself is ample indication that these polls will be deferred as the roll revision process will take more than three months.
The term of the Panchayati Raj bodies from the level of village pradhan to zila panchayat head ends after December 25 and hence the government will have to appoint administrators in all these bodies before holding the elections sometime in February-March.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar announced the dates for the revision of panchayat election rolls starting from October 1 and final publication of the voters list on December 29. 
He, however, said that the state employees involved in the process would follow all the Covid guidelines like social distancing, use of face mask and carrying sanitisers. The booth level officers (BLOs) would not visit the containment areas.
According to the programme, from October 1 to November 12, the BLOs will visit every house in the rural areas to check the voter list and will add or delete the names, as required.
Besides, during the same period, a new voter can apply online for inclusion of his/her name. Between November 6 and 12, the BLOs will verify and visit the houses of the people who have applied for inclusion of their names in the electoral rolls.
Computerisation of the draft electoral rolls would be done from November 13 to December 5 and on December 6 the draft publication of the electoral rolls would be made.
From December 6 to 12, claims and objections would be accepted on the draft electoral rolls while from December 13 to 19, the officials would dispose of the objections and claims made by the people.
The officials will prepare the final draft of the electoral rolls from December 20 to 28 and the final publication of the voters list would be made on December 29.
There are over 52,000 village panchayats, 61,000 block members, 821 block pramukhs, 3,000 zila panchayats members and 75 zila panchayat chiefs. The election was to be held for nearly 8.50 lakh posts with a voter base of 10.50 crore, the highest in the country for rural local bodies.
In 2015, under the Samajwadi Party government, the panchayat elections were also delayed by two months. But this time, the state government has hinted at the polls being deferred by six months, taking the poll process tentatively to May-June.