Election for chairman, vice-chairman posts on July 10

Hyderabad, July 9 (UNI) The elections to the post of Chairman and Vice-chairman of 22 Zilla Parishads (ZPs) in Andhra Pradesh would be held tomorrow.

Election Observer would supervise the elections to the post of of Chairman and Vice-chairman, which would commence at 1000 hrs tomorrow.

Of 1,097 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) in 22 districts, Congress secured 675, TDP 347, CPI(M) 27, TRS 25, CPI 15, BJP 2, Independants 5 and others 1.

With little time left for the posts of Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the ZP elections, the friendly parties Congress, Telengana Rastra Samithi(TRS) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) were still fighting it out over sharing of ZP Chairpersonship.

While the CPI was demanding Nalgonda, the TRS was keen on at least one ZP chairpersonship in Telangana. The Congress had made it clear that it would not give any ZP to either the TRS or the CPI.

However, discussions were still going on with friendly parties in this regard.

The Congress need the support of the TRS and the CPI to form the ZP bodies in Warangal, Karimnagar and Khammam districts. In the rest of the districts, the Congress had sufficient number of Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency members (ZPTC) to claim ZP chairpersonship.

The CPI(M) and the Congress were likely to join hands in Khammam Zilla Parishad following the intervention of top leaders of both the parties in Delhi.

The CPI(M) contested the elections in alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The CPI(M)-TDP alliance and the Congress-CPI-TRS combine bagged 22 ZPTC each while the CPI(ML) New Democracy secured two ZPTCs in Khammam. The New Democracy had already made it clear that it would not support any party.

The TDP was likely to capture Adilabad, Ranga Reddy and Anantapur ZPs. The party secured single digit seats in five districts --Kadapa (2), Srikakulam (8), Vizianagaram (9), Guntur (3) and Prakasham (4).

The Congress secured more than 90 per cent in four districts--Kadapa (47), Guntur (52), Prakasham (51) and Chittoor (49). The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed to secure only two seats in Karimnagar district.

The Congress sweeped in coastal and Rayalaseema districts, while TDP secured seats in Telangana region.

UNI BR/ASJ SY RK2019