Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Praja Rajyam admits to organisational lapses

HYDERABAD: Stung by its poor performance in the polls to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, the Praja Rajyam candidly admitted that organisational lapses and the failure of its candidates in converting into votes, the charisma of party president K. Chiranjeevi, were among the reasons.

However, an official spokesperson of the party, D. Sravan claimed that its candidates had polled roughly between 10 and 12 per cent of votes and said that considering that it polled about 11 per cent in the general elections, its performance was not bad. Of the total of 64 candidates fielded by the party, only one, M. Narasimha Yadav of Old Bowenpally tasted victory.

The party claimed that its percentage of votes polled had not gone down, despite bagging only one division. “We will not let failure bog us down in service to the people. We shall continue to struggle and highlight the problems faced by the people,” he said.

Mr. Sravan said most of the party’s candidates were relatively new to politics in comparison to people fielded by other parties.

The confusion during the talks with the Congress too cost the party dearly as clarity was lacking among the leaders and cadres, he said.

He alleged that the ‘callous’ manner in which the local body elections were slotted after a weekend too compounded to their problems. “In any urban area, people tend to go away to some other place during weekends. The authorities should have taken this factor into consideration,” he said.

Also, lots of voters were turned away from the polling booths despite having valid voter identity cards, saying that their names were not found on the voters’ list, Mr. Sravan said, alleging that there were enough examples that officials had colluded with the Congress and the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.

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