Municipal poll results today: Parties resort to camp politics

Hyderabad: Telangana is witnessing camp politics by all political parties following municipal elections in the state. The candidates who contested the polls have been shifted to various camps in the last two days to avoid poaching.

The Opposition has been alleging that the TRS has been luring independents and rebels who fought against the ruling party with huge money ahead of results on Saturday.

In Mancherial and Adilabad, nominees of a party are reportedly camping in Bengaluru and of another party have been asked to stay in hotels in Hyderabad and other cities to prevent their nominees being lured by their rivals. Sources said that they would be brought back only on the day of election of chairpersons and mayors on January 27.

According to sources, TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao has asked party leaders to make sure that the candidates are at one place for the next two days.

The party has hired buses from Karnataka to transport the candidates to secret places. Sources said that the pink party was making strategic moves to ensure that it wins all the posts of chairpersons and mayors in the state.

Meanwhile, some party leaders claim that they could win more than 100 municipalities /corporations out of the 130 ULBs which went to polls in the state.

The party's internal surveys have predicted victories of many independent candidates. With this, the TRS leadership has swung into action and started negotiations with them. These independents are likely to play a crucial role in several municipalities, where the fight is tough between the TRS and the Opposition.

Meanwhile, TRS working president KT Rama Rao has summoned party MPs, MLAs and MLCs to Telangana Bhavan at 10 am on Saturday to finalise the names for the posts of chairpersons and mayor.

Sources said that the leaders would decide in which municipality the MPs, MLAs and MLCs should be taking part as a voter in case there is shortage of corporators. The party has nine Lok Sabha members and six Rajya Sabha members and 32 MLCs and they would be given the responsibilities to vote where the party is likely to fall short of required numbers.

As per the new Act, the political parties are mandated to submit the names of the MPs, MLAs and MLCs to the Election Commission specifying the municipality in which they would be voting 24 hours before the indirect election of mayor and chairperson.

Since the election results are expected to come by Saturday evening and indirect election for mayors and chairpersons is scheduled to be held at 11 am on January 27.

When asked about the camp politics, TRS leader and Rythu Samanvaya Samithi Chairman Palla Rajeshwar Reddy avoided a direct reply and said that it was the Congress which was resorting to camp politics.

"Everyone knows who does camp politics… people have not forgotten Karnataka politics where MLAs were taken from one state to another."