TRS mantra to sweep gram panchayat polls

​Hyderabad:  The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti is keen on sweeping the forthcoming panchayat elections through unanimous election of sarpanches of most of the gram panchayats, while strictly adhering to the guidelines set by the State Election Commission and ensuring that no legal hurdles arise. 

Accordingly, TRS legislators and leaders have plunged into action, particularly in areas where the party believes it is very strong, to reason with rival candidates and keep them away from the contest, of course, without any legal complications. 

The SEC, in its recent order, had instructed the Returning Officers to deploy an election observer in every village where the entire local body (sarpanch and ward members) is stated to have been elected unanimously. So, TRS is taking all precautions to ensure that panchayats where sarpanches and ward members are elected uncontested also remain free of legal troubles.

Towards this end, TRS leaders are explaining to village heads that there would be substantial benefits in the case of unanimous election, considering that funds could be provided easily for taking up developmental works. Besides, the village stands to benefit from funds that the local MLA and MP can access, said a TRS leader. Thus, even for a small gram panchayat, funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh could be provided, all of which would be of immense help. The villages can have good roads, drainage, community halls etc, added the TRS leader.  

TRS working president K T Rama Rao, at several party meetings, had urged party leaders to go for unanimous election because of the foregoing benefits. During a meeting in Sircilla, Rama Rao said: “There is no opposition left in the villages after the Assembly elections”. So, considering that there may be three to four candidates in each village, they, instead of fighting with one another other, should and make the election unanimous. He also offered to provide Rs 15 lakh in addition to the Rs 10 lakh incentive offered by the government, especially in Sircilla constituency.

Apart from regular gram panchayats, the party is confident of carrying with it most of villages having predominantly tribal population. The state government had converted about 3,400 tribal thandas (hamlets) into gram panchayats and so the party is of the considered view that people in such villages would support TRS. 

Chief Minister and TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao, during the Assembly elections, stressed the need to develop tribal hamlets constituted as gram panchayats. He had said that because of the TRS government’s decision, over 3,000 tribals would become sarpanches in the state. Sources said that senior leaders like KTR and others may not be involved in campaign and the responsibility would be vested with MLAs and other party leaders.