With the State Government announcing the elections to the civic bodies the political tempo has picked up in the city.
There is a sea change in the equations between the Congress, Telugu Desam and the Left parties since elections to the Municipal corporations held in 2005.
High point
The Congress party, in a tie up with the Left parties, reaped a rich harvest getting 29 of its candidates elected and 17 of its comrades walking into the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation general body in 2005.
The 2005 municipal election was some kind of a high point in the performance of the Congress party.
From 24 municipal divisions in 2000 elections the Congress party won 29 in 2005.
The party could make the best out of the increase in the number of municipal divisions from 50 to 59.
The Telugu Desam Party fared very poorly with the number of its corporators falling from 11 to 10.
The CPI did well by increasing its number from five to nine and the CPI(M) too did well and increased the number of corporators from four to eight.
The tie up with the Congress worked out for the Left Parties.
The BJP which had four corporators in the general body was totally wiped out.
This rosy political scenario began to change almost immediately with the Congress party having a fall out with the Left parties.
The CPI(M) fell out with the Congress almost immediately after the municipal elections, but the CPI sailed with it for some more time.
The CPI even grabbed the offer to make one of its corporator the Mayor with the support of the Congress in indirect elections.
The equations between the Congress and the CPI changed rapidly after the one year term of their mayoral candidate ended.
The Congress even had to face candidates fielded by the Left Parties in the general elections.
More recently Congress embraced the new-born Praja Rajyam Party which put up a tough fight in the political arena in the general elections, but fared poorly when it came to the number of candidates it could get elected to the Assembly.
