A day ahead of the first phase polling for village panchayts, principal political parties in the state have started making claims and counter claims that a majority of the sarpanches declared elected unopposed belonged to them. They were engaged in war of words trying to create an atmosphere that their respective parties were winning majority panchayats.
Be it TDP, Congress or the YSRC, every party continued to indulge in claiming high rate of success among those declared unopposed.
A day after TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu said his party had secured majority sarpanch posts, which have been elected unopposed, PCC chief Botcha on Monday came down heavily on Naidu by saying that the TDP boss was laying a false claim to majority sarpanch seats declared unopposed.
It may be mentioned that on Sunday Naidu claimed that TDP-backed candidates had been elected unopposed in as many as 763 village panchayats.
Speaking to reporters at Gandhi Bhavan here on Monday, state Congress chief fired choicest salvos at his TDP counterpart, saying, “Naidu is known for undertaking Goebbels propaganda on any issue. As his party is putting a poor show in the panchayat polls, he has now begun a mind game against us claiming that a majority of sarpanches, elected unopposed, belonged to his party only.”
Botcha asserted that it was indeed the Congress party, which had secured more number of sarpanchs who were elected unanimously.
During the press meet, the PCC boss released a paper, detailing party-wise sarpanchs who were elected unopposed.
According to Botcha, of the 2,596 unanimously elected sarpanchs, Congress backed candidates had been declared elected in as many as 1,038 village panchayats whereas TDP candidates won 566 panchayats and YSRC supported candidates were elected in 459 panchayats.
The document also claimed that TRS-supported candidates have been declared elected in 118 villages whereas independents secured 415 sarpanch posts.
On the other hand, YSRC claimed that as many 600 sarpanchs, who have been declared elected unopposed belong to their party.
“Of the unanimously elected sarpanch posts, our party-backed candidates won 600 posts. It shows the clout our party enjoys among rural areas. We thank the people for reposing faith in our party,” said YSRC senior leader MV Mysoora Reddy.
TRS party secretary general K Kesava Rao on the other hand claimed that his party-backed candidates had secured majority of sarpanch posts in Telangana districts.
“We are sure our party-supported candidates will continue to be on the winning streak even in village panchayats, which are going to polls in the next couple of days,” he said.