Spurred by Congress' "impressiveperformance" in the just-concluded elections to co-operativebodies in the state, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N KiranKumar Reddy is busy drafting an "election timetable" to keepthe contentious Telangana issue as well as his detractors atbay till the general elections.
Beginning with the elections to gram panchayats, the statewill see a series of polls over the next four-five monthsleading to the general elections.
The Chief Minister started discussions with his Cabinetcolleagues on the conduct of elections to Panchayat Rajinstitutions as well as urban local bodies following theSupreme Court's interim order three days ago.
While Deputy Chief Minister Damodara Rajanarasimha and agroup of ministers held talks with the Chief Minister latelast night, Panchayat Raj Minister K Jana Reddy conferred withKiran Kumar today.
Jana also discussed the same issue with Pradesh CongressCommittee president Botsa Satyanarayana separately.
Informed sources said the Chief Minister asked thePanchayat Raj Department to complete the ground work likedelimitation of wards and fixing of reservation so thatelections could be notified at the earliest.
He is said to have told the ministers that elections togram panchayats could be held in the first round towards theend of April followed by elections to mandal and zillaparishads in June.
Subsequently, elections to ULBs will also be held.
"The Chief Minister is keen to hold the gram panchayatelections at least in April so that polls to other localbodies could be conducted after completion of theLegislature's Budget session in May," a minister who was partof the discussions, said.
"The idea behind stretching the local bodies' pollschedule for many months is to keep everyone engaged and leavelittle room for any other issue to take centre stage.
By the time these elections are completed, momentum forthe general elections will pick up and the ball will continueto roll, a senior minister explained.
The poll season, Kiran and Botsa hope, will also annultheir detractors' campaign for their replacement and cementtheir respective positions till the next elections, Congressleaders aver.