Stalemate continues over the election of Mandal Praja Parishad (MPP) president of Chandur mandal following the absence of one MPTC member to second the candidature of the person proposed for the post.
Falling in Banswada Assembly constituency represented by Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, the Chandur MPP president’s election was postponed for the third time. Barring this, elections of all MPPs were over in the last round.
The situation arose as the mandal consists of just three MPTC members. Of the three seats , two were won by Congress and one had gone to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). One is a co-option member who has no right to either propose or second the candidature of mandal president. When one Congress member proposes the name of the MPP candidate another member should recommend. But, the other being the TRS member, there is no question of his support to a Congress member. Hence, the TRS MPTC member from Laxmapur Syam Rao abstained for the third time.
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When the authorities began the procedure for conducting election at Varni mandal parishad office, Congress member Dasa Goud proposed the name of party member Seshugari Lavanya. However, there is no other member from the party to second her name. With the third member, belonging to TRS, being absent the authorities after waiting for 40 minutes announced postponement of election.
Special GO
With this, Mr. Dasa Goud asked the authorities as to why they got ready to conduct election without clarity. The Congress ZPTC Ambar Singh said that when they met the State Election Commissioner V. Nagi Reddy as part of a Congress delegation, the latter said that unless a special GO is issued the controversy over the election of MPP president (ST reserved) cannot be solved.
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Mr. Singh accused TRS leaders of resorting to postponement tactics to facilitate defection of Congress members to TRS. “The TRS feels that if our members are vexed over the delay, they would defect. However, this is not correct in democracy. If one MPP post slips from the TRS, what is it going to lose? ,” he questioned.
“As per the PR Act one should propose and another should second the name of the MPP president candidate. Election of one mandal in Jayashankar Bhoopalpally is also postponed as there are only two MPTC members. We must wait till further orders from the government,” said Saya Goud, presiding officer for election.
District Congress Committee president Manala Mohan Reddy alleged that the TRS leaders were deliberately getting the election postponed. “We will agitate if the ruling party indulges in unethical activities,” he said.