MLC Local Body Polls: Congress leaders enter fray independently

Nalgonda: Local body representatives belonging to Congress have succeeded in avoiding the Nalgonda Local authority constituency (LAC) unanimous election by filing nominations as independent candidates, but their over enthusiasm may prove to be a self-goal.

As many as 7 candidates are in local body MLC election fray but except TRS candidate MankenaKoti Reddy, the remaining six independent candidates are elected as local body representatives from the Congress.

Of the six independent MLC candidates , Vanguri Laxmaiah and Dr Kududula Nagesh are ZPTCs , whereas Arupula Srisailam, BejjamSaidulu, Ram Singh and Venkateshwarlu are MPTCs.

Nalgonda Local body constituency has 1,271 votes of ZPTCs , MPPs, MPTCs and councilors.

Of the 1,271 votes, ruling TRS has more than 800 votes, whereas Congress and other opposition parties have about 300 and 100 votes respectively.

Actually, Congress party officially boycotted the election as it did not have sufficient votes to win the election but six Congress local body representatives filed nominations as independents.

Each contesting candidate was forced to take support of 10 local body representatives to submit proposals while filing the nomination. It means 60 votes of Congress local body representatives are divided officially at the time of nominations itself.

Nobody knows about who the remaining 240 Congress voters would support. Opposition parties BJP, CPI, CPM, independents are yet to spell their stand.

At one stage, all independent candidates tried to withdraw from the election fray after reportedly getting a signal of 'good package' from the ruling TRS party leaders, but the situation turned upside down with the entry of senior Congress leader and Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy.

There are allegations that a few TRS local body representatives encouraged Congress local body representatives to avoid the MLC election from taking place unanimouslyin order to get monetary benefits from the ruling party candidate MC Koti Reddy.

Nalgonda DCC president Shankar Naik said it is wrong from the part of Congress local body representatives to file nominations as independent candidates even after the party boycotted the election.He said he would take the matter to the notice of TPCC and act as per their decision.