Telangana Government’s move to cut the poll process of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to mere 14 days has evoked a sharp reaction from the Opposition parties.
While some of the parties have knocked the doors of the Hyderabad High Court challenging the amendment to GHMC Act 1955, drastically reducing the poll process time from 45 days to two weeks, the BJP has charged the ruling TRS with an attempt to win the elections through back door.
“As the TRS was not confident of winning the elections, it was trying to win the election through foul means”, State BJP President G Kishan Reddy said. “As TRS was afraid of losing, it was dillydallying the announcement of reservation of seats for different sections”, he told the reporters.
The decision to reduce the time of campaign was a conspiracy to deprive the candidates an opportunity to campaign and seek the support of the people, he said questioning the rationale behind the move.
However, the Minister for commercial taxes T Srinivas Yadav rejected the Opposition’s allegations and said that the GHMC authorities were responsible for making arrangements for the polls and they were going in a systematic manner to finalise the scheme of reservations for the polls. “Oppositions were making baseless allegations as they were afraid of losing the elections”, he said.
Meanwhile, the campaign of Telugu Desam Party was likely to pick up pace with party national president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu addressing a rally in the city on December 9. Party leaders say that more than 30,000 people were expected to attend the meeting at the Nizam College grounds. TDP leaders were also trying to rope in popular Telugu film actor Pavan Kalyan in their campaign.
Meanwhile the State TDP President l Ramanna and working president Revanth Reddy along with Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy district unit presidents were holding talks with the State BJP leaders on sharing of seats. GHMC has 150 seats.
Meanwhile, rebel BJP MlA T Raja Singh has called for the unity of ‘Hindutva’ forces in the GHMC elections to defeat the opportunistic TRS-MIM alliance. “Only the unity of Hindutva forces can teach them a lesson”, he said.