Nearly 75 lakh voters in the 150 divisions of the GHMC will decide today which Party should be entrusted with power to administer the corporation.
Nearly 75 lakh voters in the 150 divisions of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) will decide which Party should be entrusted with power to administer the corporation, one of the biggest metropolitan civic bodies in the country, when polling is held on Tuesday for the first time after the formation of Telangana.
Amidst tight and heavy security arrangements, polling in 3,117 stations will commence at 7 am and go on till 5 pm tomorrow, when 74,23,980 voters - 39,69,007 men, 34,53,910 women and 1,163 others - are expected to exercise their franchise to decide the political fate of 1,333 candidates in the multi-cornered contests in the 150 divisions.
While the TRS has fielded its candidates in all the 150 divisions, the Congress, which is the main Opposition party in Telangana, is contesting in 149 divisions.
The TDP, which is contesting in an alliance with the BJP, has fielded its nominees in 83 divisions, and the BJP is testing its fortunes in 67 divisions.
The MIM, which won 43 wards in the 2009 elections, is now contesting in 60 divisions.
The other Parties in the fray are: BSP (55 candidates), Lok Satta (26), CPM (22), CPI (21) and other registered Parties (cumulativel 49).
There are 640 independents, most of them being rebels belonging to the TRS, Congress, TDP and BJP.
More than any other political party, it is the ruling TRS which has a great stake in these elections as it is making a determined bid to wrest power over the corporation, which was earlier under the control of the Congress-MIM combine. It not only wants to hoist its flag in the majority of the divisions but also wants to capture the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
The TRS, which did not contest in the 2009 elections to the GHMC before the bifurcation of the united Andhra Pradesh, is now eyeing the corporation to establish its political supremacy in the metropolis, too. As part of a grandiose plan to capture power in the corporation, the TRS diligently and meticulously engineered defection of MLAs from the Congress and the TDP with an eye on the GHMC elections.
All the major players in the field are plagued by rebel trouble as those who have been denied Party tickets appear keen to play spoilsport and affect the chances of the official candidates. However, the Seemandhra people, who constitute nearly 25% of the electorate, hold the key in deciding the fortunes of many a candidate, especially the TRS nominees.
Realizing the importance of their votes, all the political parties, especially the TRS, went all out to placate these sections. Since the TRS had ruffled the feathers of the Seemandhra people during the separate Telangana movement, the Party leaders, including Chief Minister KCR, went all out to soothe their feelings by repeatedly assuring that their interests would be well-protected and that they too were Hyderabadis like others.
What is more, the TRS, in order to instill confidence among the Seemandhra people, has even fielded some of them as Party nominees in the elections.
The Congress and the TDP on their part tried to rake up passions among the Seemandhra people by constantly reminding them of the utterances and threats of the TRS leaders and cadre dubbing these sections as outsiders.
However, the Seemandhra people seem to be keeping their cards close to their chests, thus forcing the major players to be on tenterhooks.
The police have made elaborate security arrangements to prevent any untoward incidents and to ensure the smooth conduct of the polls. Besides deploying nearly 45,000 police personnel for security duty, the department is using NCC cadets and home guards too as volunteer services. The polling stations have also all been fitted with CCTV cameras to monitor the polling process.