The announcement of schedule for the municipal elections in Telangana, slated to be held in January, has activated the political parties in the state.
The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the Bharatiya Janata Party have already announced that they are ready for the municipal battle.
Surprisingly, the Telangana Congress is opposing this sudden announcement of election schedule.
The party is yet to recover from the shock of Huzurnagar by-elections in which Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy’s wife Padmavathi lost miserably to the TRS candidate S Saidi Reddy.
The TPCC is virtually rudderless now with Uttam deciding to stay back from the PCC chief post and the high command is yet to announce any new leader.
The Congress leaders are speaking in their individual tone and there is no collective action plan even now.
Having realised their sorry state of affairs, some senior Congress leaders moved the high court seeking to stall the municipal elections.
TRS has found fault with Uttam Kumar Reddy for moving the court against conducting municipal elections in the State and ridiculed him for accepting defeat even before the notification was released.
Speaking to the media at the TRS Legislative Party office on the Assembly premises here on Tuesday, Government Whip Karne Prabhakar said the State Election Commission released civic election schedule as per the Municipal Act and that the government had no role in deciding the same.
“Elections are sending shivers down the spine and causing a panic attack to Uttam who appears to be putting more trust in the courts rather than his party activists and people of the State. He accepted the defeat by seeking postponement of the polls. He should learn lessons from the Congress’ abysmal performances in the recent polls,” Prabhakar said.
He said the TRS was ready to face municipal polls and win all 10 municipal corporations and 120 municipalities.
Prabhakar said TRS leaders were ready to jump into the poll fray and advised Uttam to stop approaching the courts at least in case of the Constitutional process such as elections initiated by an autonomous body like the State Election Commission.
He felt that due to such escapism by the Congress leadership, its leaders were fearing to contest the elections in the State, he said.
He said the Telangana Congress had neither a leader nor an agenda to contest the elections and hence, its leaders were finding excuses to avoid contesting the polls.
He said the TRS’ victory in the polls was a foregone conclusion as the ruling party was striving for the welfare and development of all citizens without differentiating on the basis of caste, religion or region.