TDP gains headstart over rival parties

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, June 25.

The Telugu Desam Party gained a headstart over other political parties on Monday when it released its first list of candidates for 54 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) in nine districts.

This is a modest number considering there are 1,095 ZPTCs and over 14,000 Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs) but the party has gained a psychological advantage by proving that it could get its election act together very swiftly.

The ZPTC candidates' lists will be released in instalments by the State party here and the MPTC lists by the district units till July 29, the last date for filing nominations. The ZP and Mandal chiefs will be named only after completion of the first phase of elections on July 15.

A lot of painstaking work by the TDP president, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, who has spent nearly the whole of the last five days in the NTR Memorial Trust, and his Politburo members preceded the finalisation of the candidates. In contrast, the Congress has chosen the rather easy route of giving a free hand to its MLAs and district leaders to select candidates.

The ruling party began its work even while others were speculating about dates of elections. A multi-layered structure was developed to handle the huge task of choosing over 15,000 candidates. It convened Assembly constituency-level meetings on June 19 where the village party committee presidents, secretaries and booth convenors were asked to give three preferences each for ZPTC and MPTC candidates and assess the local political situation.

Armed with the list of probable candidates, Mr. Naidu held district-wise meetings with important leaders from June 20 to 24 besides one-to-one interaction with MLAs. The opinions of grassroots-level workers came in handy for Mr. Naidu to minimise the scope for dissident activity.

In selecting the candidates, the `winnability' factor based on local caste equations and personalities has weighed heavily with the party on the ground that these would overshadow larger issues when the electorate is small.

Even as Opposition parties are searching around for alliances, the TDP has been quick to announce its plans for seat adjustments with the BJP. The BJP initially made a pitch for one-third of the seats but scaled it down to 25 per cent. But, the TDP is hardly in a mood to concede so many seats considering the latter's unimpressive performance in the 1995 polls.

Meanwhile, Mr. Naidu has entrusted to Mr. Umareddi Venkateswarlu, MP, the task of drafting the election manifesto which would promise pucca roads, protected drinking water supply and uninterrupted domestic power to all villages. The TDP chief will launch the election campaign on July 1 addressing three to four meetings in each district.

The following is the list of TDP candidates for ZPTCs: Srikakulam district -- M. Madhusudan Rao (Laveru), Mahanta Satyanarayana (Ranasthalam), Choudary Narayana Murthy (Etcherla), D. Yugandhar Rao (Sompeta); Prakasam district - B. V. Kumari (Karamchedu), V. Satyanarayana (Vetapalem); Nellore -- Y. T. Naidu (Duttaluru), K. Subbamma (Dagadarthi), G. Rebca (Alluru), E. Vajramma (Vidavaluru), G. Dasu (Kodavaluru), M. Subramanyam (Kovuru), K. Adisesha Reddy (Indukurupeta), G. Srinivasulu (Venkatachallam), G. Eswaraiah (Gudur), G. Chenchu Krishnaiah (Chillakuru), S. Shanthi (Chittamuru), E. Venkataratnaiah (Doravarisatram), Rangareddi district -- Indira (Marpally), Balakrishnamma (Mominpet), Suvarna Devi (Nawabpet), V. Satyanarayana (Shankarpally), Saraswathi (Medchal), Sulochana (Vikarabad), Phool Singh (Peddamul), B. Padmamma (Parigi), E. Narsimulu (Puduru) and E. Bhaskar Rao (Shamshabad).

Adilabad district -- G. Ramanna (Jainad), Nirmalabai (Boath), P. Rajeswar Reddy (Sarangapur), Praveena Reddy (Dandepalli), K. Rajam (Mancherial), Madvi Keshava Rao (Kasipeta), H. Mallaiah (Tiriyani), Y. Vijayalakshmi (Kagazhnagar), Rukmabai (Sirpur Urban), P. Tirupati (Jaipur), Karimnagar district -- K. Saroja (Keshavapatnam), Warangal district -- B. Nalini Devi (Narsimulupeta), K. Madhusudan Reddy (Kothagudem), G. Balu (Khanapur), Khammam district -- T. Brahmaiah (Ashwapuram), M. Gangaraju (Kukunoor), T. Panchaksharaiah (Burgumpahad), Y. Mohini (Kothagudem), Bhukya Bheema (Juloorpadu), G. Satyanarayana (Sattupalli), P. Venkateswara Rao (Vemuru), P. Padmavathi (Penuballi), K. Purushottam (Kallur) and T. Ranga Rao (Wyra).

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