The political scenario is hotting up with the filing of nominations for the elections to the Kakinada Municipal Corporation (KMC). General secretary of the YSR Congress Party V. Vijaya Sai Reddy submitted Form-A to Additional Commissioner Y. Srinivasa Rao in the KMC office before convening a meeting with the party cadre here on Wednesday. In the Telugu Desam Party camp, Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu convened an urgent meeting with the TDP and the BJP leaders in his camp office late in the evening to finalise the list.
Even as Home Minister N. Chinarajappa held daylong deliberations with the aspirants, the seat allocation could not be completed till the evening prompting Mr. Ramakrishnudu to swing into action.
With the TDP and the BJP deciding to continue their poll alliance in the local body elections, the seat sharing remained a major challenge for the leaders of both the parties. Since the TDP cadre decided to file the nominations on Thursday, the list of contestants would be finalised by late in the night.
Speaking to the media, Mr. Vijaya Sai Reddy said those who worked hard for strengthening the party in the city would be given the B-Forms.
“If we cannot accommodate all the aspirants, we will take care of the rest once the party is voted to power in the general elections,” he said, calling upon the party activists to work hard to win the civic polls.
Exuding confidence that the party would make a clean sweep, Mr. Reddy saw the factor of anti-incumbency among the public.
‘No postponement’
Meanwhile, the State Election Commission has refused to postpone the election and made it clear that the poll process would be completed as per the notification.
Responding to a memorandum submitted by a member of the BJP’s State unit Ungarala Venkata Ramana (Chinna Babu), secretary (FAC) of the Commission A.V. Satya Ramesh said the notification was issued following the orders of the High Court and it was not possible to postpone the elections at this moment. Mr. Chinna Babu raised the issue of merger of villages with the KMC and exclusion of some villages from the election process, though those residents were paying taxes to the civic body.
As many as 100 candidates filed their nominations on Wednesday including 41 from the YSRCP, 33 from the TDP, six from the BJP, three each from the Congress and the Left parties and 14 independents, taking the number to 112, the officials said.