Curtains to come down on GHMC poll campaigning today

Hyderabad: After much hype and hoopla, the high-voltage campaign in poll-bound Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for the last 10 days will come to an end on Sunday evening. While the State Election Commission (SEC) is busy making fool-proof arrangements to hold elections on December 1, main political parties roped in all senior leaders to woo the voters on the last day of the campaign.

With just 24 hours left for the poll after the campaign ends, the parties have already begun poll management, aiming to allure voters in their favour. In the last-ditch efforts, the three major parties – the TRS, the BJP and the Congress - also prepared special campaign strategy on digital media, which is free from restrictions to the campaign until the polling ends, to counter their political rivals.

BJP senior leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah's Hyderabad tour on the last day of the campaign assumes political significance. Amit Shah has been invited to attend the party road shows and address the meetings during the BJP campaign. He will visit the famous Bhagyalaxmi temple near the historic Charminar in the old city before winding up the BJP campaign in Greater Hyderabad. Senior State BJP leaders have been asked to visit as many divisions as possible and meet the voters till the campaign ends this evening.

TRS working president KT Rama Rao, who is busy with road shows all these days, would take up a whirlwind visit of the Greater Hyderabad and sign off the party campaign tonight. All the State ministers, MLAs and MLCs and party senior leaders have been instructed to organise door-to-door campaign on Monday. The local leaders were asked to distribute the TRS pamphlets, which describes the State government's achievements, to every household.

Congress senior leaders, mainly TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy and party working president A Revanth Reddy, will take up road shows in the colonies.

For poll management, the three parties constituted special teams which adopted different strategies to lure the voters. It includes distribution of money and liquor to the voters dwelling in the slums, handing over gifts like silver ornaments and electronic gadgets to the people living in the colonies and organise big night parties in star hotels. It is learnt that the parties are distributing Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 per voter to cast the vote in their support.

The social media teams of all parties will be more active from Sunday night till the polling ends at 6 PM on Tuesday. The parties have made special arrangements to storm social media with creative content and videos. All the political parties are also taking necessary measures to check false propaganda by rivals on the crucial polling day.