HYDERABAD: A day before the crucial election of chairpersons to Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Warangal Zilla Parishads, the newly elected Congress ZPTC members from Nizamabad had made a last ditch attempt to convince the party leadership to retain the post instead of allotting it to Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).

Amid strong resentment from these members, APCC president K. Keshava Rao has ruled out the possibility of revising the party's decision. Two Ministers - D. Srinivas and Md. Ali Shabbir and party MLAs from the district had made a determined bid all through Friday to persuade the stubborn ZPTC members not to defy the party's diktat and vote for the TRS ZP chief nominee.

The election of ZP chiefs of Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Warangal were put off due to lack of quorum on July 10 when the Congress and TRS ZPTC members had stayed away. Congress has allotted ZP chief's post in Nizamabad and vice-chairperson's posts in Karimnagar, Warangal and Medak to TRS. With both parties arriving at a consensus, decks have now been cleared for elections on Saturday. Election of vice-chairperson of Medak ZP will also be held today.

Bone of contention

Congress and TRS sources maintained that there may not be any problem in the election of chairpersons, now that the arrangement between the two parties had been formalised. But, the election of vice-chairperson in Karimnagar is likely to be the bone of contention between two aspirants within TRS.

Earlier in the day, Congress ZPTC members from Nizamabad had met Dr. Rao at Gandhi Bhavan, in a bid to pressurise the State Congress leadership to withdraw its decision of allotting ZP chairperson's seat to TRS. They expressed strong displeasure at the party's decision to leave the top post to TRS when Congress has secured a majority after 20 years.

Dr. Keshava Rao said it was the party high command's decision and everybody had to respect it. The ZPTC members were made to acknowledge the whip issued by the party.

Addressing a press conference here, he hoped there would not be any trouble. He has also announced that Taher Bin Hamdaan, the ZPTC member from Sirikonda as the vice-chairman candidate for Nizamabad ZP.

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