TRS, MIM set to keenly contest for Jalpally ward

Jalpally: MIM and TRS are going to lock horns in the by-election of ward no.28 under Jalpally municipal council.

Out of total 13 municipal wards in Rangareddy district, where the municipal elections are going to be held soon, the ward No.28 in Jalpally is the only one on the city outskirts. The remaining 12 wards are from newly constituted corporation of Kothur almost 10 km away from the city.

The process of inclusion, deletion and correction of names in the municipal electoral roll has begun and scheduled to be completed on or before April 13, the proposed day of election notification. The bypoll was necessitated as the MIM councillor Nazia Begum passed away on May 1 last year at the age of 55.

Tahseen Begum (25), the daughter in law of Nazia Begum, is the new face of MIM contesting from the ward as the seat has been reserved under women (general) category. On the other hand, someone from Mohd Shaker Baig's family. One person from his familywas was defeated twice in the past. However, one Syed Abdul Roufis also trying to get ticket for one of his family members. He recently joined the pink fold from Congress party. A little distance from Barkas crossroads is Sadat Nagar which, together with a few surrounding neighbourhoods and part of Shaheen Nagar, forms the jurisdiction of the Ward No28 with just 2,578 electors.

This ward is a predominant part of Maheshwaram Constituency represented by Minister of Education Sabitha Indra Reddy and Member of Parliament Ranjit Reddy. However, owing to the presence of a large Muslim population, the ward was won by MIM in the last election.

Despite MIM being an ally of ruling party, people say that several issues continue to haunt them with solution in sight. Water scarcity is a perennial problem in the ward. "We are facing acute water shortage here as there is no proper tap water line available here to quench the thirst. We are largely relying on the borewells in our houses. For the drinking purpose, we largely count on buying the water from outside. More so, the issue of no proper roads and unused sewerage lines also need to be addressed," deplored a woman.