GHMC elections in December first week?

Hyderabad: After weighing different options on holding the GHMC elections, the state government seems to be in favour of continuing the election fever that started with the campaign for Dubbaka by-election and end the process of GHMC elections by the middle of December. It is learnt that notification for the GHMC polls will be issued soon after the Diwali festival and speculations are that polls may be held anytime between December 4 and 8.

A clear picture would emerge on Friday after the state Cabinet meeting. The government does not want to give more time to the opposition this time. It is also said as far as TRS is concerned, it has already completed the preliminary exercise on the possible names of candidates who would be fielded again and who should be replaced.

Meanwhile, the State Election Commission on Thursday held a meeting with all political parties and said that it was ready to hold the polls anytime now. The Commission has already issued a draft voters list on November 11 and is gearing up to issue notification for the publication of the final list on Friday.

A meeting of the recognised political parties was held at the office of the SEC here on Thursday. Based on the suggestions of the political parties, the Election Commission has directed the GHMC deputy commissioners to ensure the voters from the ward are not included in other wards and to make sure that the votes of one family should be in one ward.

The opposition parties had raised the issue of irregularities in the voters' list as they pointed out the inclusion of voters of a particular ward into another ward. State Election Commissioner C Parthasarathi said that the Commission would take the claims and objections into account and will conduct elections in a transparent manner without any scope for irregularities.

The Commissioner further said that appointments were made regarding returning officers, assistant returning officers for taking up the election process. He said that the Election Code would come into effect on the day of the issue of notification. The list of draft polling stations would also be published on Friday and the final list of polling booths on November 21.

BJP leader Chintala Ramachandra Reddy alleged that GHMC officials had removed the names of pro-BJP voters. He urged the Commission not to appoint the GHMC officials as presiding officers and take up election with the Central government staff. NVSS Prabhakar questioned how the voters in wards were removed when there was no delimitation.

Congress leader M Shashidhar Reddy found fault with the Commission issuing ward-wise electoral rolls. He demanded the Commission to increase 25 per cent polling stations in wake of Covid. CPI leader Chada Venkat Reddy demanded the SEC not to go to the elections in haste. People are suffering because of floods and the flood relief has also not reached all. It is not justifiable to have elections when people are in problems.