Political scenes heat up in Mahbubnagar

Mahbubnagar: As the election bungle for the local bodies has been sounded by the State Election Commission (SEC), the political scenario in Mahbubnagar district heated up with all political parties conducting meetings with their cadres in all the municipalities.

While the district administration is preparing for the conduct of elections in more than 100 polling booths in both the municipalities, the political parties were moving their pawns speedily to grab an upper hand on one another.

The ruling TRS party was seriously working on the ground level to get an upper hand in the upcoming municipal elections. They have already started the 'akarsh' programme to attract the potential strong leaders from other parties into their fold.

The Congress and BJP were also planning their own strategies to beat the ruling TRS party. Earlier also the TRS has exhibited its upper hold in Mahbubnagar municipal elections and once again it is planning to regain its counsellor's share in the upcoming municipal elections.

The Congress party has put a tab on its cadres and is trying its best to ensure no potential leader from its fold jumps into TRS party. The BJP is also strategically moving to gain from some of the potential wards which are favouring the BJP.

In Mahbubnagar district there are three major municipalities including Mahbubnagar, Bhootpur and Jadcherla, which were supposed to go for elections. However, as the Kaverammapet village under Jadcherla municipality is yet to be merged with the existing municipality and the tenure of the Kaverammapet Sarpanch is yet to be completed, the SEC has excluded Jadcherla municipality from the elections and only two Municipalities of Bhootpur and Mahbubnagar are going for the elections to be held on January 22 next month.

Both Mahbubnagar and Bhootpur municipalities have 59 wards which are going for elections, of them 49 are in Mahbubnagar and 10 are in Bhootpur. The district administration has already directed the revenue officials to get ready with the proposed electoral rolls which are expected to be finalised by 4 January.

Overall nearly 2 lakh voters in both Mahbubnagar and Bhootpur municipalities were expected to go for exercising their franchise on 22 January. However, if one looks at the political scenario, the municipal elections in Mahbubnagar and Bhootpur were expected to weigh heavy on TRS party side, while the Congress and BJP were working seriously to at least grab a few counsellor's seat in the district.

But as there are limited seats and people who are expecting tickets in TRS party are in large numbers, the prospective contestants are working behind the curtains to check their prospectus. If they get ticket from TRS it is well and fine, but if not, they are expected to jump to opposition Congress and BJP.

As the SEC is yet to release the list of wards and municipal chairman seats reserved for various communities, the political leaders were hoping that the list would be announced after January 4 when the SEC declares the reservation position of wards and municipal chairmen's in the municipalities.