The Hindu : Front Page : Congress sweeps civic chiefs' election

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Saturday, Oct 01, 2005

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Front Page

Congress sweeps civic chiefs' election

Special Correspondent

Bags 79 Chairperson and 9 Mayor posts; elections in 3 municipalities and Guntur Corporation postponed

HYDERABAD: The Congress swept the election to the posts of Mayor and Municipal Chairperson along expected lines but floor-crossing in defiance of party whips and adjournment of the special meetings in four places marred the process on Friday.

Its carefully-planned strategy paid off and the ruling party made a clean sweep of the mayorship of all the nine municipal corporations and won 79 out of 92 municipalities where there was voting. The Congress also succeeded in its design to prevent the main opposition party, the Telugu Desam, from reaching the double-digit figure by restricting its tally to eight.

Although there were no surprises in the final tally, political calculations of the major players went awry in some municipalities due to last minute betrayals. In Medak, four TRS councillors defected to the Telugu Desam and helped the party claim the chairmanship. In Bhainsa, a breakaway group of the TDP joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and bagged both posts of Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson.

TRS tally

Five BJP councillors supported the Congress candidate in Pithapuram and denied the coveted post of Chairperson to its erstwhile ally, the TDP. All five have been suspended from the BJP. The BJP (three) and the Congress (7) successfully backed an independent candidate to ensure the defeat of the TDP (14) in Sircilla Municipality (29).

Beyond its two strongholds of Sangareddy and Siddipet, the TRS could not win any municipality though it managed to get a Vice-Chairperson each elected in two more -- Medak and Suryapet. The CPI (M) won the lone Khammam Municipality with the backing of the Congress.

Independent councillors sprang a surprise by winning Sircilla and Sadashivpet Municipalities, the latter in a nail-biting finish.

The CPI, the BJP, the BSP and MIM drew a blank but they had a consolation in getting their nominees elected Vice-Chairpersons in some civic bodies.

In the corporation elections, the Congress wrested Karimnagar where it had won less seats than the Telugu Desam.

It joined hands with the MIM whom it gave the Deputy Mayor post. Elections could not be held to the Guntur Municipal Corporation due to lack of quorum as Rayapati Sambasiva Rao's supporters stayed away from the special meeting in protest against the nomination of Kanna Nagaraju, son of Cooperation Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana for the mayorship.

Serious internal differences within the Congress also led to postponement of elections in Dhone, Tenali and Jammalamadugu Municipalities. The AP High Court stayed the result of the elections in Dharmavaram Municipality after TDP leaders challenged the voting right of Congress MP Nizamoddin on the ground that he had earlier opted to vote in Hindupur.

High drama

The Congress victories were not without high drama and surprises. For instance, in Vizianagaram (38 wards), the day-long talks between the BSP (13) and the TDP (11) ended up in failure and the former joined hands with the Congress (13) to support Mesala Geetha for the Chairperson post while remaining content with the Vice-Chairperson post.

Among those elected were Chief Minister's brother-in-law P. Ravindranath Reddy as Mayor of Cuddapah and son of Rural Development Minister D. Srinivas D. Sanjay as Mayor of Nizamabad.

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