Municipolls: Poll bugle makes aspirants tizzy

Warangal: Following the Telangana State Election Commission (SEC) announcement, the district administration is racing against time preparing the reservation list of wards and posts of chairmen of the municipalities in the erstwhile Warangal district. In all, nine municipalities will go to polls on January 22. Counting will be taken up on January 25.

The municipalities that will go to polls, along with the wards (in parenthesis) include Janagoan (30), Bhupalpalli (30), Torrur (16), Maripeda (15), Dornakal (15), Mahabubabad (36), Wardhannapet (12), Narsampet (24) and Parkal (22). The number of wards was increased to 30 from 20 in Bhupalpalli, while two more added to Parkal and Janagaon.

The voters’ list will be announced on January 4. The reservations to the posts of chairmen will be made known a day later and wards’ reservation on January 6. Election notification for these municipalities will be issued on January 7.

Meanwhile, all political parties, TRS, Congress, BJP and Left parties are taking the elections as a prestige issue.

The ruling party banks on the various populist schemes it launched to the poor and underprivileged. A section of voters was positive towards the ruling TRS as it created more municipalities and more districts.

On the other hand, the Congress plans to cash in on the discontent among farmers, who did not get the Rythu Bandhu benefits. Other factors that the opposition parties will try to capitalize on will be the pathetic road condition and TSRTC staff strike fall-out.

The cadre based party BJP is a non-entity in many municipalities, although it has a significant presence in Bhupalpalli, Parkal and Narsampet. The Left parties can only boast of support of trade union workers.

Though reservations for the wards are yet unclear, aspirants have started lobbying for nominations from their respective parties.