Tough task on hand for major parties in fray for 7 ULB polls

Convincing aspirants a major task to ensure smooth run for official nominees

Leaders of major political parties in the fray for April 30 elections to the Municipal Corporations of Warangal and Khammam and five other Municipalities have a plenty of work on their hands for the next three days to convince the aspirants other than official candidates to withdraw their nominations and make them support the official nominees.

With the completion of filing of nomination papers on April 18, the major political parties have turned their focus on finalising the electoral alliances with the friendly parties and ensuring that there is no split in the voter support for the party by making the party aspirants other than the official candidates withdraw from the fray.

Unlike the elections to Assembly and even the GHMC where every constituency and ward, respectively, would have votes running into lakhs, the elections to other urban local bodies (ULBs) in the State would be tricky with every ward having a smaller electorate of running only into thousands.

Stakes would be even higher with every vote turning crucial, unless a candidate has a clear support compared to his/her rivals.

“The number of aspirants for ward members’ posts is higher than that for Mayor or Chairperson posts since the election to the two key posts is held indirectly as the aspirants for the latter posts need to be elected to the former posts first. That’s the reason why 1,314 aspirants from Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) have filed their papers for 248 ward members seats in the seven ULBs,” a senior party leader considered close to the leadership said.

The competition for party tickets, even for the ward members’ posts, is also high in BJP and Congress, as 619 and 584 aspirants, respectively, have filed their papers in the seven ULBs knowing well that only 248 or lesser number in the event of alliance with friendly parties would get the party nomination.

Aspirants from the CPI, CPI (M), TDP and AIMIM have also filed papers for some wards in some ULBs – not all.

It is understood that an electoral alliance between TRS and CPI is almost finalised for Khammam Municipal Corporation and a deal is likely to be clinched between Congress and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS).

On the other hand, Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) and Jana Sena Party (JSP) have also decided work together in the elections to seven ULBs.

“Unlike in GHMC, some independents having good name in the area also pose a threat to the chances of candidates of major parties and we have to tackle them too,” the TRS leader said.