Amaravati: Municipal polls litmus test for government

Amaravati: The State Government will be facing the first test of its governance as the urban local bodies in the State are set to go to polls on Wednesday.

These elections assume importance since the entire opposition had taken up a campaign against the government accusing it of resorting to misuse of state machinery particularly the police to grab the civic bodies.

They alleged that the ruling party had been able to win Pulivendula, Punganuru, Piduguralla and Macherla municipalities unanimously as they misused the official machinery. Even in many other municipalities, an unusually high number of wards were bagged by the ruling party "unopposed", forcing the opposition parties to cry foul.

The issue of privatisation of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant is likely to play a major role in the municipal elections as the city has been on boil since Monday following the statement of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that privatisation of VSP was certain and that they had consulted the State Government on the issue.

Elections will now be held on Wednesday for 71 municipalities and Nagar Panchayats and 12 municipal corporations in the State, with 78.71 lakh eligible voters.

The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation is going to polls after over a decade, the first after its expansion.

The ULB elections were abruptly deferred in March last year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, after the nominations were filed. The opposition parties TDP, BJP, Congress, Jana Sena, CPI, CPM demanded that the State Election Commission cancel last year's poll notification and issue another afresh in view of alleged malpractices committed by the YSRC.

The SEC, however, gave an opportunity in some municipalities, where the opposition candidates were allegedly made to forcibly withdraw from the race, to file complaints with evidence for their cases to be reconsidered.

In practice, though, no candidate came forward to file nominations afresh as they reportedly faced 'threats' in multiple forms. In Ward No.7 of the Tirupati Municipal Corporation, the TDP candidates nomination was "withdrawn" but the SEC cancelled the election in that ward after it was established that the candidate's signature was forged.

The stakes are very high for the YSRC and the TDP as the main opposition wants to prove the ruling party has lost all credibility because of alleged misgovernance, while the former is banking heavily on its welfare agenda.

But all eyes are on three major Municipal Corporations Guntur, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam as the outcome in these civic bodies will virtually be a virtual referendum on the contentious state capital issue.