Campaign begins for Panchayat polls

Hyderabad, June 23: Political parties in the fray began hectic compaigning for the two-phased Panchayat polls on June 28 and July two with the Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court clearing the decks.

The ruling Congress has received a shot in the arm as it bagged uncontested 418 out of 532 MPTC seats and 10 ZPTC seats. The TDP could not open its account in ZPTC polls but won 60 MPTC seats as the State Election Commission (SEC) published the list of candidates in the fray after withdrawals.

Setting the tone for the ruling party's campaign, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today accused the TDP of making a 'false propaganda' that there were gross irregularities in the voters list.

Meanwhile, TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu feared large scale violence to force withdrawal of opposition party candidates and urged the SEC to convene an all party meeting to ensure free and fair elections.

Talking to reporters, SEC secretary G N Rao today said helicopters would be pressed into service for electioneering in the inaccessible and sensitive places in Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, Prakasam and Karimnagar districts. ''Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will not be used for the polls.

The printing of ballot papers will be complete in all districts by June 25. As many as 1,36,358 ballot boxes are arranged for 51,739 polling stations to be manned by 3,02,596 polling personnel'', he added.

Seat sharing remained partial for both the Congress and TDP as their allies the TRS and CPI on the one hand and the CPI(M) on the other, opting to contest on their own in some districts.

Finding themselves in rival camps, the CPI, which had struck an understanding to contest 30 ZPTC seats in nine districts and decided to contest on its own in 38 more seats in 12 districts would face the fraternal CPI(M), in as many as 13 ZPTC seats.

The CPI(M) clinched a deal with the TDP to contest 101 ZPTC seats in 17 districts and got the support for the Zilla Parishad Chairman's post in Khammam and Nalgonda districts in the indirect elections at a later stage. The Marxist party was contesting on its own in 36 other ZPTC seats in five districts, where no seat sharing could be clinched.

In all, 3957 candidates, including 1023 from the Congress, 980 of the TDP, 338 of the BJP, 117 of CPI(M), 106 of the TRS and 70 of the CPI were in the fray for 1087 ZPTC seats.

As many as 44,180 nominees, including 14,905 of the Congress, 14,392 of the TDP, 2013 of the BJP, 1591 of the CPI(M) and 1370 of the TRS, were left in the fray for the 15,598 MPTC seats going to the polls.

Arrangements for the polls were in full swing in all the 22 districts, according to reports received here.

In Chittoor, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu's home district, Congress bagged the Sadum ZPTC uncontested as the TDP candidate withdrew his nomination. As many as 202 candidates are in the fray for remaining 64 ZPTC seats and 2024 candidates for 817 MPTC seats in the district where the Congress had won unanimously 27 MPTC seats, while the TDP won eight and CPI one MPTC seat.

A Vijayawada report quoting Krishna district collector Navin Mittal said 141 candidates of various parties were in the fray for 49 ZPTC seats and 1947 contestants for the 833 MPTC seats going to polls on June 28.

UNI