Ponnam Urges Voters To Elect Cong Sympathisers in GP Polls

Hyderabad: Telangana Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar on Monday appealed to the voters to elect the ruling Congress sympathisers in the third and final phase of elections to Gram Panchayat polls to be held on December 17 to ensure development in the villages. If the Sarpanchs (Panchayat President) are Congress sympathisers, development activities can be carried out with more speed, he said in a video message. “The Congress government led by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy would take up development programmes in every village. You are witnessing the fruits of development and welfare programmes reaching villages,” he said. He cited the examples of various schemes, including the distribution of fine variety rice (against coarse variety earlier) in PDS, disbursal of new ration cards, free travel for women in buses, as major ones under implementation. State Congress president B Mahesh Kumar Goud claimed a resounding victory for Congress-supported candidates in a majority of sarpanch positions across the state in the second phase polls held on December 14. The Gram Panchayat elections are held on non-party basis. Expressing satisfaction over the outcome, Goud said the people’s verdict was clear approval of the Congress government’s performance, according to a release. Meanwhile, BRS Working President K T Rama Rao claimed an “unparalleled” win for his party in the second phase elections as well. He claimed that the BRS recorded victories even in villages which are represented by Congress MLAs and ministers. The “failure” of the Congress in villages represented by government leaders show that politics in the state, he maintained. Meanwhile, Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar said the BJP won 29 of the 98 seats it contested in his Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency in the second phase polls. Over 85 per cent of eligible voters exercised their franchise in the second phase of the gram panchayat elections in Telangana on Sunday. The first phase of elections on December 11 recorded a voter turnout of 84.28 per cent. The Telangana State Election Commission had announced a three-phase schedule for the gram panchayat elections to be held on December 11, 14 and 17. Following the recent bypoll to the Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency, which was won by the ruling Congress, the gram panchayat elections are being viewed as a test of the popularity of the Congress, BRS and BJP, although the polls are held on a non-party basis. Owing to legal hurdles related to the Congress government’s proposal to provide 42 per cent reservation to Backward Classes in local bodies, the Telangana government, on November 1,7 decided to conduct elections only for gram panchayats, deferring polls to other rural local bodies, including Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) members.



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