chennai the state election commissions announcement on monday of the local body poll schedule in two phases but only for the village panchayats panchayat unions and district panchayats seems to have left the political parties as well as the public bemused with a few petitions seeking clarifications over reservations for women and scst as well as delimitation of wards in the newly formed nine districts slated for hearing only on december 5 the hurried announcement is meant to adhere to the court order to hold civic polls before december 13 2019 the hearing on the petitions could also provide an opportunity to the sec and the state to buy time from the court to file their response eventually delaying the processin a state bereft of elected local bodies for more than three years the move to separate the rural and urban local body polls has baffled many while the state has seen multiphased local body polls in the past each one of those phases had included both urban and rural local bodies this is the first time such a divide has been scheduledneither the aiadmk nor the dmk seems to be willing to face the local body polls now since it will throw up several challenges in terms of number of aspirants from within and caste equations besides demands from allies said an observer unwilling to be named with just over a year to gear up for assembly polls they feel it is better to delay it said the observerthere is uncertainty among residents of village panchayats while opposition parties and public seem to be unaware of the outcome of delimitation exercise carried out in the village panchayats the representatives of the ruling party seem to be equipped with details charged t lakshmanan dmk it wing coordinator in trichy districtdmks tirunelveli east district tenkasi president p sivapadmanaban feared confusion would prevail in the district panchayat member elections in pappakudi alangulam kadayam and melaneelithanallur unions as they have panchayats that are divided between tirunelveli and the newly carved out tenkasi district