GHMC polls: TD fields big guns for campaign

Hyderabad: Seeing the GHMC polls as a matter of its prestige, the Telugu Desam has deployed the largest contingent of star campaigners that include as many as 12 Andhra Pradesh ministers and 40 AP legislators.

They are digging in deep and pushing the party’s stakes up, especially in divisions where Seemandhra settlers have sizeable presence and substantial voting strengths.

The party’s AP MLCs T.D. Janardhana Rao and V.V. Chowdary have been made coordinators for the Andhra contingent. They are allotting divisions to the leaders for campaign.

All the 12 ministers and 40 legislators kickstarted campaigns in their respective divisions Wednesday.

Will quit post if Congress wins 15 seats: Talasani
Challenges are galore in the GHMC elections where rival political parties and combinations are putting up a stiff fight for the February 2 trial of strength. Challenges are flying thick and fast, adding to the heightened poll revelry.

Close on the heels of a statement by panchayat raj and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao that he would quit government if the TRS failed to win the Mayor post, commercial taxes minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav said Wednesday that he would quit his post if the Congress won as high as 15 seats in the civic elections.

TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy quickly pic-ked the challenge and ask-ed Yadav to have the cour-age to stand by his vow.

“I will resign if the Congress wins 15 seats (out of the total 150 seats). The Congress and TD governments neglected Hyderabad city over the years. Drainage, water supply and roads are in a bad shape here. Congress indulges in talk of how it developed the country. It also claims that its governments developed Hyderabad. I challenge them to prove their claims,” Mr Srinivas Yadav told a TV channel.

Yadav became the second minister in TRS government to hold out a challenge and offer to quit the post based on results of the GHMC polls. Mr Rama Rao had said he would quit the post if the “TRS flag fails to flutter over GHMC and the party fails to win the Mayoral seat.”

At a rally in Kukatpally, Telugu Desam working pr-esident A. Revanth Reddy beat his thigh and asserted that there would be a bypoll in the constituency soon.

“There is no need you get scared (of the TRS). I stay nearby, which is a 15-minute drive from here. If you have any problem, knock at my door even at midnight,” he told voters.

Mr Revanth Reddy said, “A bypoll is sure to be held and you will have a new MLA. Till then, I am the Kukatpally MLA,” he asserted.

The present Telugu Desam Kukatpally MLA Madhavaram Krishna Rao had defected to the TRS.

Mr Reddy said if TS Chief Minister and TRS chief  K. Chandrasekhar Rao is committed to the welfare of all people of both the states, as he was claiming, he should change the name of his party to Telugu Rashtra Samiti and change the name of Telangana Bhavan into Telugu Bhavan.