The Tamil Nadu government, led by Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, has extended the tenure of special officers administering rural local bodies in 28 districts by another six months, until April 19, 2027, and appointed special officers in nine other districts for the same period, news agency IANS reported from Chennai on Wednesday, October 21.

The Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department issued a government order providing for the continuation of the administrative arrangements across all 37 districts following the expiry of elected local bodies' terms. In the 28 districts, the terms of elected representatives expired on January 5, 2025, and special officers were initially appointed for six months from January 6, 2025, to administer village panchayats, panchayat union councils and district panchayats; their tenure has since been extended at six-month intervals, with amendments to the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1994. In the remaining nine districts — Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, Tirunelveli and Tenkasi — the terms of elected representatives ended on October 19, 2026, IANS reported.

The decision comes as the government finalises the merger of 46 rural local bodies with urban local bodies, a process that will change the boundaries of the affected institutions. The Commissioner of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj told the government that elections to rural local bodies across the 37 districts could not be conducted before October 19, 2026, because the merger exercise was still being completed, IANS reported.

Mirror Now, in a separate report, said rural local body elections have been pushed to after March 2027, and that after the mergers and the creation of new panchayats, the state must complete mandatory delimitation and seat reservation processes across 23 districts before elections can be held. It said the government has formalised the timeline in a court undertaking given during a 2024 writ petition, and that in the interim, zonal block development officers will oversee village panchayats, assistant directors of panchayats and audit will manage panchayat unions, and district panchayats will remain under additional directors from the district rural development agencies.