Election Commission was in great hurry to hold the Municipal, Zilla parishad and Mandal elections prior to the assembly elections in the state. But now, it is taking its own time to hold local body elections for heads of municipal and panchayat bodies which had to be postponed due to various reasons back then.
Though they precipitated the process before the general elections, they are being lax now which is leading to defections from other parties into TDP. This has also resulted in the candidates spending lakhs of rupees for camp politics.
It’s already one and half months since the general elections have been held and nearly 20 days since the governments have been formed in both the states.
Yet, neither the Election Commission nor the state governments of Telangana or Andhra Pradesh are taking any initiative to conduct these elections which are vital to empower the local bodies as per constitution.
Meanwhile, YSRCP members met Governor Narasimhan and submitted a letter to this affect. Though the opposition party YSRCP has a good chance of winning the five ZP seats, ruling party TDP has been encouraging defections which has become a headache for the main opposition party.
It remains to be known as to why Election Commissioner Ramakanth Reddy is not taking an initiative to conduct elections for heads of local bodies.
