Even as the deadline for the nominations for the municipal elections is fast approaching, the YSR Congress is yet to finalise its candidates for the 59 divisions in the city. March 13 is the last date for the filing of nominations and the scrambling for tickets among the candidates were on till late Tuesday evening. A party senior leader said that whatever the case might be, the nominations would be filed by the closing time of Wednesday (March 12).
Party insiders say that the task of finalising the tickets have been given to the respective in-charges of the Assembly segments that fall within the corporation limits and it has become a Herculean task for them as more than 10 eligible persons from each division have pitched in. And over and above this, the caste factor and the reservation system have added up to their woes.
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As per the norms, 50 per cent of the seats in all the 59 divisions are to be allotted to women and that leaves only 16 divisions open for candidates from open category. “The reservation system has hit the candidates from the open category very hard. And since the task of finalising the candidates have been left to prospective MLA candidates, they are ruling the roost. Various factors such as caste, money and proximity to the segment in-charges have left many genuine candidates high and dry,” said a leader who is expecting a ticket.
Tie-up tangleApart from this, another factor that delayed the finalisation of the list is the proposed tie-up with the CPI (M) for the municipal elections. A senior leader of the party said that the talks were on, but the tie-up would not take shape as there were some major differences on the seat sharing ratio.
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It is also believed that at one point of time a senior leader and an MLA aspirant was told to hold back his horses and was suggested to contest from one of the divisions to run a race for the mayor’s post.