Visakhapatnam: Battle lines are drawn for local body elections

Visakhapatnam: Even before the dust raised during the general elections held in April last in the State gets settled down, political atmosphere is set to hot up again with the issue of election notification for local bodies.

Battle lines are drawn between the arch rivals -- the YSRCP and the TDP -- to cross swords for one-upmanship.

The local body elections, scheduled to take in this month, are a crucial test for the ruling YSRCP which stormed to power in the general elections by bagging as many as 151 out of 175 seats.

The polls will help the party gauge the mood of the people whether they are happy or not with the functioning of the nine-month-old YSRCP's governance. Apparently, the party seems to be fully geared up for the battle with all necessary ammunition.

For the Telugu Desam Party, on the other hand, considerable gains in these elections are must for its survival. Though the party has a strong cadre at the grassroots, the debacle in the last elections hit the morale of the activists so badly and it needs time to bounce back. Against this backdrop, the TDP hopes against the hope for postponement of the elections citing injustice to BCs on quota issue.

In Visakhapatnam district, 39 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs), 652 Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs) and two municipalities besides a big number of panchayats are going to polls.

In the general elections last year, the YSRCP upset TDP applecart and won eleven out of 15 Assembly seats in the district, establishing a clear supremacy over its rival. Meanwhile, the YSRCP leaders are confident that the party will repeat the last year feat and make a clean sweep of the elections. They hope the 'Navaratnas' being showered on the poor after coming to power will help the party win the elections hands down.

It may be mentioned here that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy started chanting 'freebie mantra' immediately after taking oath, showering sops on weaker sections apparently in a bid to create a vote bank. One has to see whether voters will give him a return gift or ignore him as they did to TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu after accepting 'pasupu kunkuma' from him just before elections.

The decisions such as establishment of three capitals, which was welcomed by the people of North Andhra, and delivery of pension at doorstep of the beneficiaries are likely to work in favour of the YSRCP.

The TDP, for which win in the local body elections is a must for survival, may highlight during the campaign what it called the vindictive policies of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government, forcible acquisition of assigned lands for the distribution of house sites, deletion of some names of beneficiaries from ration cards' list and discontinuation of the welfare schemes introduced by it.

The other parties like Jana Sena, BJP and Congress are unlikely to make any impact on the ensuing polls. The JSP, which plans to fight the elections along with the BJP, is yet to build a strong cadre at grassroots. It drew a blank in the district in the last elections despite its chief Pawan Kalyan has a huge fan-following in the area. However, he himself lost the battle in Gajuwaka.

The congress, which is still in 'ICU', may find it difficult to field candidates in many places.