Hyderabad: Having learnt a bitter lesson with defections by its MLAs after the Assembly elections, the Telangana Pradesh Congress Comm-ittee (TPCC) has taken precautionary measures to control defections post the zilla parishad Territ-orial Committee (ZPTC) and Mandal Parishad Territorial Committee (MPTC) elections.
The TPCC has decided that every Congress candidate for ZPTC and MPTC will announce in public through Rs 20 bond paper, that he/she will not change parties after the election. If the promise is breached, the people can file criminal cases against them.
Karimnagar Lok Sabha Congress candidate Ponnam Prabhakar introduced this system in the recent Lok Sabha elections and the TPCC has decided to follow it in the local body elections. The meeting was attended by AICC general secretary R.C. Khuntia, senior leaders V. Hanumantha Rao, Ponnam Prabhakar and Ponnala Lakshmaiah.
TPCC held a preparatory meeting at Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday presided over by its president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy for the ensuing ZPTC and MPTC elections. It was decided to give a free hand to local leaders to have alliances with other political parties according to local conditions.
The members at the meeting demanded that the state government hold direct elections to Zilla Parishad and Mandal Parishad chairpersons' posts. In the present system, ZPTC members elect the ZP chairperson from among themselves and MPTC members elect the MP chairperson from among themselves.
The meeting decided not to involve the TPCC in the selection of candidates and to leave it to local leaders and they will finalise the candidates through select and elect policy. The TPCC's target is winning 20 Zilla Parishad chairpersons out of total 32.
TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy told the media that the first list of ZPTC and MPTC candidates will be announced in two days. He said that candidates for ZP chairperson and Mandal Parishad chairperson will be announced in advance where there is clarity.
He said that the direct elections should be held for ZP chairrperson and Mandal Parishad chairperson post to avoid defections by luring elected members. The TPCC chief called on party leaders and cadre to take the ZPTC and MPTC elections seriously.
