Hyderabad: The TRS, which has won seven out of nine zilla parishads in 2014, is working on a strategy to grab all 32 of reorganised zilla parishads in the ensuing elections.
The TRS had won Adilabad, Mahbubnagar, Medak, Warangal, Ranga Reddy, Nizamabad and Karimnagar by winning 42 per cent of the Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTC) in the indirect elections
The Khammam ZP was won by the TD and the Nalgonda ZP by Congress, and the chairpersons of both ZPs defected to the TRS along with the ZTPC members.
In 2014, the state had 441 ZPTCs, which went up to 535 with the creation of new districts. However, the number of mandal parishad territorial constituencies has come down from 6,473 to 5,857 following the merger of several mandals and villages into municipalities which were constituted after the formation of the state.
Sources in the party revealed that with political workers joining the TRS from the Congress, Telugu Desam and the BJP after the results of the Assembly elections in December 2018, the Opposition parties are not in a position to find strong candidates to contest the MPTC and ZPTCs in the ensuing elections which are slated to be held in three phases in May.
While the party did benefit from senior leaders deserting their parties and joining the TRS, an equally significant gain was the defection of lower rung cadres at the grassroot level.
The TRS nominated many defectors for the Assembly and Parliament elections, it is expected that their aides who joined the ruling party will benefit similarly in the local polls.
Sources in the party revealed that the TRS top leadership had already indicated to ministers and MLAs of ruling party to give priority to leaders who had joined the TRS from the Opposition while giving tickets for the MPTC and ZPTCs.
