Political parties have to race against time to fight the local body polls, as the entire schedule have been compressed into a less than two weeks—13 days to be precise.
Though the government has been hinting at holding the elections at short notice, it is the delimitation of wards that has left the leaders with a difficult choice.
At present, the GVMC has 98 wards. Many corporators who had earlier represented the wards have found the same has been reserved for women after delimitation and this has turned out to be a limiting factor.
One ward is reserved for ST (general), four each for SC (women) and general categories respectively, 16 for BC (women) and 17 for BC (general), 29 for women (general) and 27 wards are unreserved. Of the total 98 wards, 49 are reserved for women.
“We have raised several objections to the delimitation, but now that the notification has been issued, we have to burn the midnight oil to finalise the nominees,” says TDP (Urban) general secretary Ch.V. Pattabhiram.
Women to the fore
Women will dominate the GVMC elections, with 50 % of the corporator seats reserved to them as per the announcement made by Collector and GVMC Special Officer V.Vinay Chand late on Sunday night. In the last election in 2007, the reservation was only 33 %.
“Though I want to contest, I cannot do so since the ward I had represented earlier is now a part of three wards and reserved for various categories,” rues a former corporator.
It is the predicament of the YSRCP leaders too as the number of women in all the categories has gone up.
For instance, 13 of teh 15 wards in Visakhapatnam East constituency are reserved for women, leaving only two for men. “Women have to be given a priority while selecting the right candidates with winning prospects within a short time is going to be a tightrope walk,” says a former corporator who is now a YSRCP leader.
A panel comprising Ministers K. Kannababu, V. Srinivas, A. Suresh Kumar and Anil Kumar Yadav is expected to finalise the nominees on Tuesday.
