ELICITING OPINION: Members of the Election Commission interacting with political parties at a meeting in Hyderabad on Tuesday. — PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Cutting across party lines, major political parties on Tuesday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to include sarpanches and all teachers in the list of voters to elect their respective representatives to Legislative Council, which is being revived shortly.

Under the earlier system, MLCs representing local bodies were elected by zilla parishad members, municipal councillors and corporators and cantonment members, among others, but not sarpanches. In respect of teachers' constituencies, only those working in secondary schools and above were eligible to vote.

At a meeting convened by the ECI with the recognised political parties here, political leaders wanted the Commission to revise the rolls under its direct supervision. Another notable suggestion was for delimitation of constituencies on the basis of population and including graduates from UGC- recognised institutions as voters.

Speaking to reporters, Congress representative A. Chakrapani said the 2001 electoral rolls should be taken as criterion while finalising the list. BJP president N. Indrasena Reddy said the voters' list should not be prepared on the basis of population. While opposing revival of the Council, the TDP nominee E. Peddi Reddy said teachers working in Government-recognised schools should also be enrolled as voters.

Some suggestions

Y. V. Rao (CPI-M) said the corporate colleges and schools should be kept away from the election process so as the polls do not become farcical. K. Ramakrishna (CPI) sought clarification on the teacher's constituencies, enrolment of voters and classification of educational institutions. S. Madhusudana Chary (TRS) said full Council should be constituted.

Deputy Election Commissioner S. Balakrishnan said the three-member team was here to elicit views of the political parties on delimitation. As the Legislative Council was being revived after two decades, the ECI wanted to finalise the modalities, he said.

90 members initially

He said that the Council would be constituted with 90 members. But, he added that it was also looking into request that it could be revived initially with limited members. There would be no reservation, the ECI official said and added that as per the Constitution, those teachers working in all secondary schools alone were eligible as voters.

The Commission legal advisor, S. K. Mendiratta and secretary, A.K. Majumdar and Chief Electoral officer, V. Bhaskar, were present.

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