Parties gearing up for panchayat elections

By R. J. Rajendra Prasad

HYDERABAD, JULY 5. Though the panchayat elections taking place on July 12 and 15, decide only the outcome of the zilla parishads and mandal parishads, the ruling Telugu Desam, the Congress and the Telengana Rastra Samithi (TRS) have been treating it as a general election because they are conducted on party basis. In August, elections will be held on a non-party basis to elect sarpanches to about 19,000 villages.

At stake is the election of about a thousand members of the zilla parishad territorial constituencies who in turn elect the 22 zilla parishad chairpersons, and about 14,500 mandal parishad territorial constituencies, who will elect about 1,100 mandal parishad presidents. The Telugu Desam and the BJP have reached an understanding with respect to 11 districts for seat adjustments and the Congress has some understanding with the CPI and CPI(M) in other districts.

The public attention, however, is on the elections in Telengana region where the TRS is making a debut in an effort to capture the 440 mandals and 10 zilla parishads in the region. The TRS President, Mr K. Chandrasekhara Rao, who has requisitioned a helicopter for the campaign, is making an impact on various sections with his ``single point'' agenda of separate State for the region. The Congress and BJP are in the embarrassing position of losing their separatist cadre to the TRS which is emerging as the principal opposition force in Telengana.

The Congress leadership has failed to give any direction to its cadre. Firstly, the APCC is functioning without an executive or district committee for the past one year. The CLP and the APCC gave a free hand to its MLAs from Telengana to plead the cause for separate State for the past one year without any approval from Delhi and today they find that the platform they built was occupied by Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao. The Congress says Telengana is not an issue in this elections. The BJP is forced to depend on some individuals to win the elections, instead of on its cadre, which is migrating to the TRS.

The Congress decentralised the process of choosing candidates to contest on its tickets, with the result there are nearly one hundred seats without a Congress candidate. The APCC President, Mr. M. Sathyanarayana Rao, has recently said he was ``ashamed'' that the party could not set up candidates because of infighting at the district level.

Both Dr. Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy, leader of Congress Legislature Party, and Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao of TRS promise free power to farmers. Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao speaks against reforms in power and economic sectors, saying these are against the Telengana interests. The Chief Minister, Mr.N.Chandrababu Naidu, talks of development being possible ``only in a united, bigger State''.

The TRS already won 32 mandal parishad territorial constituencies without contest in areas where the Peoples War Group of naxalites are strong. Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao is making an effort at winning the maximum number of mandals and zilla parishads in the region to show that the people support his agenda.

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Section  : Southern States
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