ECI given data causes confusion
Election Commission of India’s figures could be confusing at times. This could be seen from the data posted on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer of Andhra Pradesh before bifurcation of the State. According to the performance of political parties in the united AP in 1983 elections, the TDP secured just one seat. Incidentally this was the year when late NTR rode to power with over 200 seats in the 294 member Assembly after nine-month-long gruelling campaign across the State. The website, however, shows the TDP contested in just one seat while the independents won in 219 seats.
The list of candidates and votes secured by them in the just concluded elections is another instance. The list released late in the night says that not a single vote was cast under the None Of The Above category in Sircilla constituency represented by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s son K.T. Rama Rao while there were in fact more than 2,000 votes cast for NOTA. Its time the election authorities rectified the shortcomings as the data is extensively utilised by various sources.
Sops for politically unemployed?
At a time when the State government is planning to introduce another sop for people, this time for unemployed youth, during the next financial year after finalising the modalities for its implementation, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is also considering a rehabilitation programme for its senior leaders who lost in the recent elections to the State Legislative Assembly. The rehabilitation programme to address the political unemployment is expected to begin in the coming months with elections to Parliament (Lok Sabha) and Legislative Council. Among the seniors who lost the recent Assembly elections are four ministers in the last cabinet — Tummala Nageswara Rao, Jupally Krishna Rao, Patnam Mahender Reddy and Azmeera Chandulal. “We will soon start working on the modalities for giving allowance to unemployed youth, but it’s for the political leadership to decide on the rehabilitation package for the politically unemployed,” quipped an official.
Bureaucracy fears ‘fallout’
Election results may have been one-sided but the uncertainty in the run up made bureaucrats to open up lines of communication with others just in case. Official grapevine is abuzz about who has made only ‘polite enquiries’ and who did dare to ‘walk the extra mile’.
Apparently, this has not gone unnoticed in the upper echelons of the ruling party which did keep a close tab on the chatter among bureaucrats during elections. While there may have been personal preferences on which parties to support in the elections, more than a few officials seem to have earned the ire of the powers that be as the feeling is that they went ‘overboard’ in their support.
In what form will the ‘reaction’ be forthcoming from the ruling clique in the next few days will be interesting to watch as any reshuffle will be a give away.
Falling short of expectations
For a party which aspired to become an ‘alternative’ to the ruling party or aim to be in a position to ‘decide’ the next Government, the BJP came a cropper in the polls. Yet, what was more galling was the cavalier manner in which the party decided to unveil the capital specific manifesto.
Since it was the only party which decided to come out with Hyderabad specific plan there was lot of expectation. But, after the manifesto chairperson gave an overview, two top central leaders, including a Union Minister, decided to speak on the achievements of the Modi government only.
Absence of State or city president or any of the five city MLAs (one left before the programme was done) took the sheen away while few city leaders who have been in the forefront in taking up city causes had no clue about the manifesto!
(M. Rajeev, B. Chandrasekhar and V. Geetanath)