Parishad polls put cong in tight spot

Warangal: With the battle for Parishad elections set in motion on Monday, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Congress appear two sides of contrasting fortunes with the former ruling the roost in and after Assembly elections threatening the very existence of the latter in the State.

With its shoulders already drooping over its dismal performance in the Assembly elections last December, the Congress leadership is now finding it difficult to field winnable candidates in the elections to zilla parishad territorial constituency (ZPTC) and mandal parishad territorial constituency (MPTC). With a host of its leaders either already jumped ship to TRS or about to hop, the Congress now has a tough task on hand to find candidates, who can put up a decent performance in the Parishad polls.

The TRS, which clinched 10 out of the 12 seats in the Assembly elections, went into Lok Sabha arena confidently despite a setback it suffered with the party backed candidates losing elections to three seats of the Legislative Council.

"Personal economic interests, lack of commitment and direction from the leadership led to the downfall of the Congress further after the Assembly elections," a senior Congress leader told The Hans India.

With almost two thirds of Congress MLAs expressing their willingness to join the ruling party, the party cadre and second rung leaders started to fear about their political future. This has led many leaders crossover to the ruling party, leaving the party in doldrums, he said, referring to the dearth of winnable candidates.

On the other hand, the situation in the ruling party is totally different with too many aspirants vying to become Zilla Parishad (ZP) chairman and Mandal Praja Parishad (MPP) presidents. With six ZP chief and 71 MPP president posts for taking, the ruling TRS which has an overwhelming number of its own leaders and those defected from other parties has now a 'healthy competition' for tickets from within its ranks.

The MLAs appear to be in a fix over selecting candidates for ZPTC and MPTCs as there are too many aspirants willing to contest. It may be mentioned here that the TRS leadership entrusted the responsibility of selecting the candidates to local MLAs.

"It's pretty tough to zero in on candidates. With the party is doing exceedingly well, the number of aspirants is colossal. With just a couple of days left for the filing of nomination papers, we have a task on hand to convince the leaders before announcing the candidates," a senior TRS leader said.

Meanwhile, the process of receiving nominations has begun on Monday in 25 mandals of erstwhile Warangal district. In the first phase, the elections to 25 ZPTCs and 287 MPTCs will be held. The polling will be held on May 6.