Andhra Pradesh faces polls from local body-level to Lok Sabha

As the country heads for polls in a  few weeks from now, voters in Andhra Pradesh have their hands  full as the state needs to elect representatives from the  local body to the parliamentary level even as its bifurcation  remains a mere formality. 

Along with Lok Sabha polls, Legislative Assembly elections  would be held simultaneously in Andhra Pradesh on April 30 and  May 7.   But that is not all, ahead of Lok Sabha and Assembly  polls, elections to 146 municipalities and 10 municipal  corporations across undivided Andhra Pradesh would take place  on March 30.   And if that was not enough, SEC is now gearing up to  conduct polls to elect Mandal Parishad Territorial  Constituencies (MPTCs) and Zilla Parishad Territorial  Constituencies (ZPTCs) after a Supreme Court order.  

The appointed day for the coming into existence of the new  state of Telangana is June 2.   The Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC) is of  the opinion that the notification for general elections would  not have any impact on municipal polls since SEC is an  autonomous and constitutional body.   The announcement for municipal polls was largely unwelcome  for political parties in Andhra Pradesh since that puts an  additional burden on them ahead of the general and Assembly  elections.   Parties fear that a poor performance in the civic body  polls would cast a shadow on their prospects for the general  elections.

SEC has issued separate instructions for District  Panchayat Officers, Mandal Parishad Development Officers and  CEOs of Zilla Parishads to prepare electoral rolls as per gram  panchayats, MPTCs and ZPTCs, respectively, and display them at  their offices.   SEC is expected to announce the schedule for Panchayat Raj  polls tomorrow.   Back-to-back elections would put enormous pressure on the  government machinery, including police, which has to be  bifurcated expeditiously before June 2.  

Year-end examinations for various courses, held in the  months of March, April and May, would mean a bigger task for  the education and other departments involved in the process.   Hitting out at the ruling Congress for failing to conduct  local body polls on time, senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu  has claimed that that was the reason why the state was now  facing the peculiar situation of polls in quick succession.   "They (Congress) are in power for the last nine-and-a-half  years, but they could not hold municipal elections in time.   "That's why you have a peculiar situation where you have  three elections (Lok Sabha, Assembly and municipal polls),"  the BJP leader had said here on March 4.