Municipal polls: Congress legislators face backlash for sidelining key leaders in Mancherial

Congress legislators in Mancherial district are facing criticism for sidelining popular leaders aspiring to contest from the newly formed Mancherial Municipal Corporation and four municipalities.

Mancherial: The Congress legislators of the district are drawing flak for ignoring certain popular leaders who are interested in contesting from newly formed Mancherial Municipal Corporation (MMC) and four municipalities.

The legislators are accused of deliberately delaying the issuance of tickets in a bid to sideline the leaders despite their popularity and to keep them away from the fray for the post of Mayor of the MCC and chairpersons of Bellampalli, Chennur, Luxettipet and Kyathanpalli civic bodies. They are, however, receiving criticism from the activists of the leaders as well.

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Expecting their contributions to be recognised, the leaders shifted their loyalty to the Congress a long time ago. They then invested huge amounts of money in publicity and other expenditures during Assembly polls and played a vital role in victory of Premsagar Rao, Vivek and Vinod from Mancherial, Chennur and Bellampalli constituencies respectively.

The legislators are likely to officially hand over the B-forms to candidates of the party on February 3, the deadline for withdrawing nominations. Scrutiny of nominations will be carried out on January 31. Valid nominations would be published on the same day.

Candidates are allowed to appeal against rejection of nominations on February 1. They are allegedly assuring businessmen and realtors that the posts would be given if they could afford the cost of elections. They are informing eligible aspirants that top leadership would decide the candidates after taking various factors into consideration.