The outcome of the recent by-elections in the state has definitely created a panic atmosphere in the ruling Congress party so much that it was not dare enough to conduct the elections to the local body polls.

The Kiran Kumar Reddy government on Saturday issued notification deferring the elections to all local bodies and panchayat raj institutions by another six months. As such, the government has extended the rule of special officers in all the panchayat raj bodies for this period. Apparently, the Congress party fears that if it faces rout in the local body elections, too, there would be no future for the party.

The decision clearly exposes the Congress government's scant respect for constitutional provisions and people's interests.

According to Lok Satta party general secretary Katari Srinivasa Rao, the government has been repeatedly postponing the elections under one pretext or the other to serve the interests of the ruling Congress party, which is apparently afraid of conducting elections in the wake of the severe drubbing it received in the recent by-elections.

He pointed out that the government itself had admitted that it had forgone nearly Rs.2000 crore of Central assistance legitimately due to it because of failure to hold local body elections on time.