ADILABAD: No sooner the news on the High Court's directive on Panchayat Raj elections reached here, the scenario changed drastically. Enthusiastic supporters of political parties suddenly vanished from party offices of houses of political leaders.

Soyam Bapu Rao, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MLA from Boath put it like this. "News telavangane rende nimishallo velli poyaru (Left in just two minutes of coming to know of the news)". He and Adilabad MP T. Madhusudan Reddy were left at the latter's house mostly answering queries from mediapersons.

Elsewhere in town people formed into small groups to discuss the latest development. At pan shops, tea houses there were animated discussions on the issue.

Some like farmer Ramana Reddy of Borigaon in Ichoda, a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supporter, left for his village on learning about the latest on elections.

Some positives!

"Kanisam vithanalesenduku time dorikindi (At least I got time for sowing", he observed. Many like him seemed to have participated in electioneering despite there being no time for the activity on their hands.

The worst hit by the cancellation of elections were the candidates themselves. By this time, some had spent over Rs. 50,000 for the Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) and probably a fourth of it for the Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency.

Rokandla Ramesh, the Congress candidate from Jainad ZPTC revealed, "I spent over Rs. 50,000 in making preparations. The cancellation of elections would be a setback".

Jogu Ramanna, TDP's floor leader in the last Zilla Parishad body also spent about the same amount of money. "However, some of this expenditure was covered by the party".

Some political activists were unlucky in knowing of the development just a little late. Like the TDP supporter Githe Keshav from Mannur in Gudihatnoor mandal. "I came to know (about the election cancellation) just after I emerged from the printing press. I had just paid Rs. 5,000 for making additional copies of the voters list," he said.

WARANGAL: The decision evoked mixed response from the political leaders here. The Opposition TDP welcomed the decision describing it as an endorsement to its allegations over irregularities in voters list. The party leaders K Srihari, E Dayakar Rao, R Prakash Reddy and S Samma Rao said demanded that the Government order for a detailed inquiry into their complaints and come up with fresh voters' list.

Ponnala's version

Major Irrigation Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah described it as `unfortunate' and said they may be some irregularities which could have been rectified by the officials. TRS MLA G Vijayarama Rao pointed out that the voters' list was prepared during the erstwhile TDP regime and it should be equally held responsible for the irregularities in the electoral rolls.

Scores of candidates had already spent huge sums lobbying for votes and on campaign material such as posters, flags, banners and hiring of vehicles etc. TDP demand

NIZAMABAD: Telugu Desam Party demanded that the Congress Government step down owning moral responsibility in the light of the High Court decision.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, former Minister, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said that if Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy did not resign the President of India needed to intervene and dismiss the Government. He described the court's decision as a major blow to Congress.

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