Congress blames poll schedule for not finding apt candidates

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) on Friday blamed the 'truncated' municipal poll schedule for not finding suitable candidates for some divisions.

As many as 120 municipalities and nine municipal corporations in the state would go for polls on January 22 and the campaign was on in full swing.

"It is an erratic and illogical poll schedule. There was minimal or no time-gap between the date of notification and nomination and therefore, the opposition parties could not finalise appropriate candidates," Nalgonda MP Uttam Kumar Reddy said in a press release.

The state election commission (SEC) issued the notification on January 7 and the filing of nominations began from the next day.

Condemning TRS working president and Minister K T Rama Rao for his statement that Congress could not field candidates in nearly 500 seats for municipal elections, the MP said it was due to the alleged manipulation of the poll process by the ruling TRS government and not due to the weakness of Congress party.

"TRS leaders, with the help of local police, either lured or intimidated Congress leaders to prevent them from filing nomination papers. Those who filed their nominations were beaten up in the presence of local police and forced to withdraw their candidatures. Many Congress leaders who refused TRS offers were implicated in false cases," the Congress leader alleged.

TRS was managing elections and not really contesting them, he further alleged.

Stating that TRS has made more than 500 major election promises since 2014, he dared KTR to list out at least 10 major promises which have been fulfilled.