Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), both trying to prove their strength in Telangana, are concentrating on the Secunderabad Cantonment Board elections.
The term of the present board members will end by January 2020 and elections will be held in the same month. For this, the defence ministry will issue an election notification in October 2019. To prove their strength, both TRS and BJP are demanding that the elections be conducted on a party basis.
The state BJP has written to the defence ministry requesting this. TRS working president and Municipal minister K.T. Rama Rao has also demanded the same.
There are 62 cantonments and Pune, Kirkee and Varanasi Cantonment Board elections are being held on a party basis. All other boards, including Secunderabad, have been holding these elections on a non-party basis.
In the previous elections, four TRS-supported members out of a total of eight were elected. Both the TRS and BJP feel that they are strong in the cantonment area and will win majority of the seats.
Three days ago, Mr Rama Rao held a meeting with Cantonment Board members and party leaders. In that meeting, Mr Rao criticised the Centre for not taking up any development work in the cantonment and not allowing the government to take it up either. Indeed, it created hurdles in any attempts to do such work. Mr Rao demanded that the hospital located in the cantonment area should be handed over to the state government for development. Both the TRS and the BJP feel if the elections are held on a party basis, they can have some hold on the cantonment board.
After winning four Lok Sabha seats, including the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat, the BJP wants to consolidate its strength in the cantonment area. BJP leaders said that the defence ministry has to take a decision whether or not the cantonment board elections should be held on a party basis.
