Political parties in Andhra Pradesh facing a bigger and simultaneous polls for the lok Sabha and two Assemblies, have requested the Election Commission to postpone the urban local bodies elections.
An all-party delegation met Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal and urged him to postpone the civic elections as their results will be seen as an exit poll which is banned by the Commission.
The State Election Commission had announced the schedule for the 146 local bodies just before the Election Commission of India announced the schedule for the lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
The local bodies elections are to be held on March 30 and results will be announced on April 2.Sources said that the CEO responded favourably to the request of the parties and assured them to send a report to the Central Election Commission.
Nevertheless, parties were going ahead with their preparations for the local bodies along with the general elections. Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the leading contender for power in Telangana region, was exploring the possibilities of joining hands with the smaller parties to win maximum local bodies in the region. The party was in favour of alliances with Communist Party of India and the CPI(Ml) New Democracy which had actively fought for Telangana State.
At a review meeting, TRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao asked the party leaders to take the local bodies elections seriously as their result will affect the general elections. “The outcome of local bodies elections will reflect the mood of the people,” he said. KCR asked the party leaders to go all out to win the majority of 56 local bodies going to the polls in Telangana.
Another left party CPI(M) has also expressed interest in alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, though it had opposed the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.