High-voltage civic election campaign ends in pilgrim city

Tirupati: The high-voltage election campaign for the Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT) came to end on Monday evening after a tumultuous electioneering by the contending parties as a last ditch effort to woo the voters in the prestigious election which generated much heat and din.

Mini-rallies and door-to-door campaign by contesting candidates in all the 27 corporation divisions which is going to poll marked the campaigning while state and district leaders of political parties plunged in election battle adding more tempo to the last day of the electioneering.

In all 87 in the fray including 27 from YSRCP, 21 from TDP, 12 from BJP-Jana Sena Party combine, 6 from CPM, CPI 1 and the remaining independents. There is straight fight in 12 Divisions, triangle contest in 7 Divisions and the multi-cornered fight in the remaining 8 Divisions. It may be noted here that 22 YSRCP candidates elected unanimously while polling was deferred due to court order leaving the 27 divisions here voting will be held on Wednesday. Interestingly, it was the first time as many as 22 candidates were elected unanimously for the Corporation election which also saw less number of independents contesting compared to the previous elections.

The election naturally evoked much interest as it is going to be held after nearly 20 years. In the 2002 election, TDP won the civic body. On the last day of campaigning, City MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy appealed to voters to vote YSRCP based on the excellent performance of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government and also to resolve many long-pending issues like expansion of drinking water supply, underground drainage and also declassification of lands in many divisions.

BJP senior leaders including K Shanta Reddy, B Nalla Reddy, Bhanu Prakash Reddy, S Srinivas, who participated in many rallies, said it was the BJP which through the Smart city project with an outlay of Rs 2,000 crore helped the pilgrim city develop its infrastructure facilities in a big way while seeking voters support BJP candidates to accelerate Tirupati development.

Former TDP MLA M Suguna sought the voters to reject the YSRCP as its government failed in all-fronts while corruption and inefficiency is the net result of the 20-month rule of YSRCP in the state. Notably, good number of kins of TDP leaders fighting in the corporation election including former MLA M Suguna granddaughter Venkata Keerthi (18th Division), Telugu Yuvatha district secretary Sridhar Varma spouse Jyotsana (16th Division)and Krishna Yadav brother of former TUDA chairman Narasimha Yadav.