Fearing backlash, Congress government tries to delay local body polls in Telangana

The Congress government is clearly on the backfoot and apparently fearing defeat, is trying to delay the local body elections

Hyderabad: With public sentiment rising against its policies and tardy implementation of schemes like the crop loan waiver, apart from a crisis in gram panchayats due to paucity of funds, the Congress government is clearly on the backfoot and apparently fearing defeat, is trying to delay the local body elections.

This is after Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had directed officials just last month to expedite the process for conducting the local body polls. At a meeting with officials, he had also asked to complete the process of preparing voters lists in local bodies in a week. Last month, at a meeting in Mahabubnagar, the Chief Minister had asked the party cadre to gear up for the local body elections as well. The Congress had also promised to increase the BC quota to 42 percent in local bodies.

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Elections to 12,769 gram panchayats have been due as the tenure of Sarpanches ended in January and since then, Special Officers have been entrusted with the functioning of Panchayats. Similarly, the tenure of 5,857 Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies and 539 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies also ended recently.

At the same time, farmers across the State are fuming at the State government over the tardy implementation of the crop loan waiver. This apart, the situation in gram panchayats is adverse to the government. Village secretaries are forced to spend money from their own pockets to get even basic works done in the panchayats. To make matters worse, sanitation staff members have been complaining that their salaries have been delayed since the last few months.

Given the current situation, the Congress is now adopting tactics to delay the conduct of the local body elections. Backward Classes Minister Ponnam Prabhakar’s statements bear significance in this context. Speaking at the Sardar Sarvai Pappanna Goud Maharaj birth anniversary celebrations on Sunday, the Minister had declared that local body elections would be conducted only after the BC census was completed.

This exercise would definitely consume time and holding the elections in the next couple of months could be a challenging task. Further, the Backward Commission has to submit its report on the BC quota in the local body elections.

Pressure from parties over BC quota

Amidst these, opposition parties have been exposing the Congress government’s lack of commitment towards BCs. “Mark my word, the Congress will again betray the BCs,” BRS working president KT Rama Rao had informed the party cadre at a meeting here last week. BJP Rajya Sabha MP K Laxman had also demanded that the Chief Minister fulfill his promise of providing 42 percent reservation to BCs in the ensuing local body elections. On Sunday, the BJP MP reminded that the Congress had come to power with the support of BCs and other weaker sections. It was nearly eight months but there was no word from the Congress government over implementation of increased quota to BCs, he added.