It’s time for political parties to face MLC battle

Karimnagar: After conducting the Assembly elections successfully in the State, the Election Commission is gearing up to take up the challenge of conducting MLC, Panchayat and local body elections along with parliament elections continuously in the State.

As the term of sitting MLCs – T Swamy Goud from Karimnagar Graduates Constituency and P Sudhakar Reddy from Karimnagar Teachers Constituency - would come to an end on March 29 next year, the Election Commission started voter enrollment from November 6 this year and decided to conduct MLC elections before the completion of the term of the sitting MLCs, i.e., before March 31.

But keeping in view of the low turnout of voter enrollment for both Graduates and Teachers Constituencies, the Election Commission had extended the date till January 31.

There are 27,000 voters in Teachers Constituency, but 14,000 members only have enrolled their names in the voters list of Teachers Constituency till date. Only 62,000 members have enrolled their names in the voters list, which is far less when compared to previous elections.

After identifying that more than half of the members did not enroll their names in the Teachers and Graduates constituency, the Election Commission extended the date till January 31.

In a recent meeting, District Collector Sarfaraz Ahmed called upon the electorate belonging to Karimnagar Graduates Constituency and Karimnagar Teachers Constituency of Telangana Legislative Council to enroll their names as the voters on or before January 31 in the erstwhile districts of Karimnagar, Adilabad, Nizamabad and Medak.

It is to be noted that unlike general elections where enrolment of voters is a continuous process, the voters for Legislative Council elections would have to enrol only before the conduct of elections as voters by submitting Form 18 for Graduates’ Constituency and Form 19 for Teachers’ Constituency.

For Graduates Constituency, voter should have passed degree, at least three years before October 1, 2018 and must be a resident of the Constituency where as for the Teachers Constituency, the voters should have at least three years teaching experience in government and recognized private educational institutions, at least six years before the issuance of notification.

Political analysts suggested the authorities to announce the schedule at least 45 days ahead of the expiry of MLCs’ term, i.e., in first or second week of January next to ensure that maximum number of teachers will participate in the voting process, since the teachers will be busy in March with examinations and preparations.

Meanwhile, the aspirants are preparing their ground anticipating tickets from TRS, Congress and other political parties along with major teacher unions like PRTU, TTF and STU.