Unanimous election of Sarpanches continue
Hyderabad: Asthe deadline for nominations for the first phase of Gram Panchayat elections ended on Saturday, unanimous election of Sarpanch posts continued in many villages in the state.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy childhood friend Venkataiah has been elected as Sarpanch unanimously in CM’s native village of Kondareddypally. In a move to end the poll battle in his Makthal Assembly Constituency, Animal Husbandry Minister V Srihari announced Rs 20 lakh funds to the villages where Sarpanches are elected unanimously. Ruling Congress and BRS MLAs and Assembly constituency in-charges were holding meetings with Sarpanch aspirants in their respective parties to announce the unanimous election of the panchayat head posts.
Defying the State Election Commission orders to stop auctioning of Sarpanch posts, the two rival parties are competing with each other in announcing unanimous election of the posts. In Rangareddy district, the BRS grabbed five sarpanch posts.
The Congress was ahead of BRS in Nalgonda, Khammam districts, where the Ministers and Congress MLAs were dictating the village politics in finalizing the candidates to get elected unopposed.
Sarpanch aspirant Venkataiah Goud announced a fund of Rs 51 lakh for the development of his native village of Chinna Adisharlapalli Gram Panchayt in Nalgonda district and locals announced their support for him to get elected unanimously. In Mahbubnagar district, Rajashekhar made the promise of funding Rs 38 lakh for village development soon after he was elected Sarpanch unopposed from Earasandoddi village in KT Doddi mandal.
As per the State Election Commission report, 8,198 nominations were filed for Sarpanch posts and 11,502 nominations for ward members. The elections are being held in 4,236 Gram Panchayats in 189 mandals.
A total number of 37,440 ward members will be elected in the election. The polling will be held on December 11, and the counting of votes would be held on the same day. Nominations for the second phase panchayat elections would start on November 30 and the last day for filing nominations was December 2.