KCR springs surprise by going for GHMC polls 2 months before due date

Hyderabad: TRS supremo and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao clearly took Opposition parties by surprise by opting for the GHMC polls sooner rather than later. The GHMC Council only needs to be formed in Feburary next year but elections are being held nearly two and a half months before the due date.

The BJP and the Congress, reading signals from TRS leaders, had anticipated the polls in the second week of January. The State Election Commission scheduling the polls on December 1 took them by surprise.

The Opposition parties are now left with little time to finalise the list of contestants as nominations have to be filed by November 20.

The sudden announcement of the election schedule along with the poll notification confined the Opposition to their party offices till late night, figuring out poll strategies to tackle the ruling party.

BJP senior leaders including Bandi Sanjay, union minister of state G. Kishan Reddy, Dr K Laxman and others were busy at the BJP’s office in Kacheguda.

TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, working presidents Ponnam Prabhakar, A, Revanth Reddy and Kusum Kumar, senior leaders Mohammed Ali Shabbir, Dr J. Geetha Reddy were closetted at Gandhi Bhavan and the CLP office.

A senior Congress leader said it was not easy to finalise candidates for 150 divisions in a matter of hours and the leaders have to spend sleepless nights till the last candidate files the nomination on November 21.

He pointed out, “We have to concentrate on selecting the right candidates as well as take care to protect them from poaching by the TRS or the BJP.”

Another leader in the Congress said, “We have a tentative list of candidates but finalising the names within a short time is difficult. Doing it in such a hurry may dent our prospects.”

A senior leader in the BJP said they had not faced any difficulty in finding candidates. “We have many aspirants within the party and some from the Congress and the TRS are also looking at the BJP. They could even rush to us at the last minute. But accommodating such winning horses at this short notice may cause some difficulty.”

Another burden was the extremely short campaign of just 10 days after the last date for withdrawal of nominations.

The ruling party obviously has an advantage of moving a step ahead against the Opposition as it was well in advance with its poll strategies.