Andhra Pradesh

GHMC polls: PR finds few takers for ticket

HYDERABAD: In a candid confession, senior leaders of the Praja Rajyam admitted that they had to come to grips with the reality of not finding strong candidates to contest in all the 150 divisions of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

After a tough exercise that lasted over two months, the party released a list of 50 names as contestants in the GHMC polls on Friday. Contrary to expectations, party president K. Chiranjeevi did not release the list himself, entrusting the task to senior leader Kotagiri Vidyadhara Rao.

Interestingly, Mr. Rao did not rule out the possibility of releasing another list, although the deadline for filing nominations ended at 3 p.m. on Friday When asked, he said there was time till November 10 for withdrawals and that if there were more names, they could be given ‘B’ forms. Also, eyebrows were raised at the fact that the party is fielding candidates in only three divisions of the old city, including Uppuguda, Saidabad and Ghansi Bazar.

The contestants include Kattela Smitha Priya Yadav, wife of the party’s GHMC unit president Kattela Srinivas Yadav who is contesting from Ramgopalpet, M. Sujata, wife of the party’s unsuccessful contestant Sarangapani, who tried his luck from the Secunderabad Assembly constituency in last elections.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu