Telangana Municipal Polls: Campaign Ends, 3-Way Fight Between Congress, BRS, BJP

Polling in seven municipal corporations and 116 municipalities will be held on Wednesday (February 11).

A total of 12,930 candidates are in the fray for 2,996 wards in the 123 urban local bodies.

As many as 52.43 lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes in the municipal elections. They comprise 25.62 lakh men, 26.80 lakh women and 640 others.

The State Election Commission has set up 8,203 polling centres and arranged 16,031 ballot boxes for polling.

The state poll body will also arrange 137 strong rooms and 136 counting centres.

Re-polling, if any, will be conducted on February 12. Counting of votes will be taken up on February 13.

The municipal elections are witnessing a three-cornered contest among the ruling Congress, opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The campaign saw no-holds-barred attacks by leaders of all three major contestants. The ruling Congress party sought the mandate in municipal elections to continue the welfare schemes implemented by its government during the last two years.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, who led the Congress campaign, accused BRS and BJP of having a secret deal to defeat the Congress party.

The Chief Minister also launched a scathing attack on the BJP for what he called shielding BRS president and former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), his son K. T. Rama Rao (KTR) and other leaders in the alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram project and Formula E car race case.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president, all state ministers, MPs, MLAs and other leaders of the ruling party campaigned for the party candidates.

BRS campaign was led by KTR and senior leader T. Harish Rao. They targeted the Congress government over what they call its unfulfilled promises and corruption.

The BRS leaders came down heavily on Chief Minister Revanth Reddy for his alleged abusive remarks against KCR and accused him of trying to divert public attention from his alleged corruption by using the SIT to summon BRS leaders for questioning in the case relating to the alleged phone-tapping case during the BRS rule.

State BJP president Ramchander Rao and Union ministers G. Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay Kumar steered the party campaign.

BJP national president Nitin Nabin also addressed a public meeting in Mahabubnagar, while Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis addressed a rally in Kumaram Bheem Asifabad district. Both the leaders accused the Congress government of practising the politics of appeasement.

The state BJP leaders termed Congress and BRS as the two sides of the same coin and appealed to people to give a chance to their party.

The BJP, in its manifesto, promised that there would be no increase in any taxes, including house tax, if the party was voted to power in municipalities and municipal corporations.

Jana Sena Party, which is part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), also fielded 336 candidates without an alliance with the BJP.

Jana Sena had also announced that its leader and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan will campaign for Jana Sena and BJP candidates for two days. However, his visit was cancelled, and the party did not come out with any statement on the reasons for the cancellation.

Leaders of both Congress and BRS had opposed the actor-politician's campaign plans, citing his remarks made in December last year that "evil eye on the scenic Konaseema region of Andhra dotted by coconut trees was one of the factors for the bifurcation of undivided Andhra Pradesh'.

Both parties alleged that his comments were against Telangana. However, the Jana Sena leader claimed that his comments were distorted.

- IANS