VIJAYAWADA: Contestants of major political parties have kick-started door-to-door canvassing seeking public mandate for civic body polls in Vijayawada, notification for which was issued on Monday. The municipal elections are scheduled to be held on March 10 and the State Election Commission (SEC) will announce the results on March 14. In February 2020, the SEC released the election schedule of rural and urban local bodies—MPTC/ZPTC, municipal bodies and Gram Panchayats (two phases) in March. However, the election procedure didn’t progress further since the SEC postponed local body polls for six months amid Covid-19.
With the virus spread having reduced gradually and after successful conduct of two phases of panchayat election, the SEC has decided to conduct urban local bodies’ poll in March. Though the poll was postponed, the contestants of various major political parties, who filed their nominations earlier, have made best use of the delay.
Be it physical campaigning or through social media platforms, they were in constant contact with the public of their respective divisions and imbibed confidence among them by supplying essentials, vegetables and medicines to them during Covid-19.
Of the total 64 wards in Vijayawada, 32 have been reserved for women and 19 for general candidates. However, the general category reservation may pose a challenge to the ruling party, while selecting a candidate for the mayor post. Former corporators B Punyaseela, A Sailaja and senior corporators Tadi Shakuntala and MV Ratna Bindu have carried out unofficial canvassing in their respective divisions, banking on its current achievements.
The YSRC leaders distributed house site pattas and rice cards to the beneficiaries under three Assembly segments of the city in the presence of the ministers and local MLAs. Commenting on her name being circulating as mayor candidate from YSRC, ex-corporator Punyaseela said that she felt it was her responsibility to take forward the various schemes being implemented by the State government to reach out to the people in the city.
“As of now, I am doing my job without expecting any favours. The remaining will be decided by the party,” she added.The Opposition TDP contestants are canvassing highlighting the failures of YSRC in completing various infrastructure projects through distributing pamphlets in their respective divisions. Among the contestants, first-timer Kesineni Swetha, daughter of MP Kesineni Srinivas (Nani), is battling it out for the mayor candidate through her #Jago Bezawada slogan.
She along with senior leaders and corporators visit the divisions every morning and interact with the public to know their problems. “Since a year, I have been in public glare and know that they are unhappy with the YSRC governance. I appeal to them to consider my development plans to transform Vijayawada as a world-class city,” Swetha said. MP Kesineni Nani is touring various wards highlighting the government’s failures and how it has failed to continue the initiatives of the previous TDP government. Nani said gangs involved in smuggling ganja have become rampant here.