Campaigning for LB poll peaks in AP

Hyderabad, Jun 25 : With only a day left for campaigning to end for the first-phase of elections to Panchayatraj Bodies in Andhra Pradesh, the ruling and opposition parties are fully involved in electioneering after the High Court cleared the decks for the polls.

Keeping intact its relations with the CPI, the ruling Congress has revived ties with UPA constituent TRS and will go to the two-phase polls on June 28 and July two, riding 'the crest of the Rajasekhara Reddy Government's ''achievements'' with confidence as it has already bagged 418 of the 532 MPTC seats and 10 ZPTC seats uncontested.

The Opposition TDP reached a partial electoral understanding with the CPI(M) and hoped to cash in on the people's perceived ''dissatisfaction'' against the ruling Congress and also from the remarks made by the High Court Single Judge on bogus votes.

Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu and Union Labour Minister and TRS Supremo K Chandrasekara Rao have refrained from campaigning leaving the job to their party colleagues.

Former Chief Minister N T Rama Rao's son and noted Actor N Harikrishna, who mended fences with Mr Naidu ahead of the polls, was the star attraction during the TDP's electioneering.

The Congress kept to itself the lion's share of 995 of the 1,097 ZPTC seats, leaving 68 ZPTC seats to the TRS and 34 to the CPI. This election will see the two Communist parties, which find themselves in rival camps, lock horns after a long gap in more than ten Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) in Khammam, Adilabad, Rangareddy, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam and Guntur districts.

Keeping its cards close to its chest, the CPI(M), after unsuccessfully negotiating with the Congress, clinched a deal with the TDP, with which it had severed its ties after the latter decided to support the BJP-led Vajpayee Government at the Centre, to contest 101 ZPTC seats in 17 districts and got an assurance of support for the Zilla Parishad Chairman's post in the districts of Khammam and Nalgonda.

The Marxist party has fielded its candidates for 36 other ZPTC seats in five districts where no understanding could be reached with the bourgeois party.

Keeping in view the vigorous monsoon, the State Election Commission pressed into service helicopters to reach inaccessible and problematic places in the districts of Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, Prakasam and Karimnagar.

As many as 1,36,358 ballot boxes would be kept ready in 51,739 polling stations to be manned by 3,02,596 polling personnel for election of Local Self Governments by an electorate of more than 3.89 crore voters, including over 1.97 crore women.

In all, 3,957 candidates, including 1,023 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 1,087 ZPTC seats.

As many as 44,180 nominees, including 14,905 of the Congress, 14,392 of the TDP, 2,013 of the BJP, 1591 of the CPI(M) and 1,370 of the TRS, were left in the field for the 15,598 MPTC seats going to the polls.

UNI