Congress taking GP polls seriously

​Hyderabad: The newly elected Congress MLAs and those who have lost election in the recent Assembly elections have been entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing preparations for the Gram Panchayat polls. TPCC leaders have informed this to the MLAs and the defeated candidates of the party. They were told to start the activity as soon as the schedule for the GP elections is issued.

The PCC may hold a meeting of the MLAs, candidates and district president as soon as clarity comes on the dates of the polls. The polls which have to be held by January 10, next year as per the orders of High Court may be postponed to February due to the delay in finalisation of BC reservation.

The Congress, which lost the Assembly elections badly, is hoping for a win in the next GP polls. Even though the GP polls would not be held on the party symbols, the party has taken up the elections seriously. Leaders of the party said that the Congress has better cadre strength in the villages than the ruling TRS. The Congress-backed candidates won about 2,000 sarpanch posts whereas TRS backed candidates won about 1,500 posts in the GP villages held in 2013.

Congress has won majority of the posts in Nalgonda, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Mahbubnagar districts whereas TRS won majority seats in Warangal and Medak districts. There were 8,600 GPs in the state when it was formed and the number has gone up to 12,751 after the formation of the new Gram Panchayats this year. Each of the 88 rural Assembly constituencies contains about 150 GPs. Some of the GPs have been reserved for the scheduled tribes. A senior leader of the Congress said that the political parties use the GP elections to establish their organisation in the villages which form the base of the state politics.           

The leader said that in view of this the political parties give much importance to the GP polls and want that candidates backed by them win a majority of them. The Congress, which has to face the Zilla Parishad and Mandal Praja Parishad and Parliament elections in the next few months, has to win majority of the GPs if it has to put up a better performance in other elections. 

The candidates of the Assembly polls would have a better knowledge about the leaders of the villages and could pick up those who could win. The presence of constituency level leaders would give confidence to the candidates of the sarpanch and ward member posts, a source in the PCC said.