After the announcement of results of the last month’s elections to Zilla Parishad (ZP) and Mandal Parishad (MP) Territorial Constituencies, the Telangana State Election Commission has been gearing up to conduct indirect elections for the posts of ZP chairpersons and vice-chairpersons.
A notice for convening a special session of the newly-elected members would be issued on Friday and the election of MP presidents and vice-presidents would be held the same day. This would be followed by a meeting of the elected members for selection of ZP chairpersons and vice-chairpersons the next day.
According to officials, the members at the special session would be asked to raise their hands in support of the candidates nominated by the party that secured majority seats for the top posts of the rural local bodies.
This would be followed by the announcement of the new bodies for the Zilla Parishads.
The ruling TRS is set to create a record of sorts by bagging all the 32 ZPs in the first ever elections held for the rural local bodies after the formation of the State. The party’s nominees emerged victorious in as many as 449 of the 539 seats for which elections were held, with the Congress candidates remaining a distant second winning 75 ZPTCs.
The ruling party continued its sway in the MPTC elections too where TRS candidates emerged victorious in 3,548 seats, constituting over 60% of around 5,817 seats, while the Congress candidates managed to win 1,392 seats.
The elections, coming immediately after the Lok Sabha elections, however, have remained one-sided. This could be seen from the fact that ZPs in at least six districts would not have Opposition members.