HYDERABAD: The TRS and Congress leaders are now busy protecting their respective herds of candidates in municipalities and corporations in the State from being poached by other parties.
Though the results for the elections to the ULBS would be out only on Saturday, the parties are not taking any chances. As the elections for the mayor, deputy mayor, chairman and vice-chairman are scheduled on January 27, the leaders have to protect the councillors and corporators from predators of other parties.
Just before a bus load of TRS candidates from Adilabad municipality left for a resort on Friday morning, former minister Jogu Ramanna said that he would not call it a camp. "After election, it would be better if all the candidates destress for a while. They need not be at the counting centres on Saturday since their agents will be there anyway," he said.
In Yellendu, the expectation is that TRS rebel Madata Venkata Goud would give a tough fight to the ruling party and it is expected that his panel would win about 10 to 12 wards and the TRS just eight to nine of the total 24.
The TRS will surely eye the rebel councillors while the rebel leader would try to retain them to capture the post of chairman and deputy chairman for his man. Both the rebel leader and the TRS leaders have shifted their candidates to camps.
In this small town, reliable source said the ruling party leaders have offered up to `30 lakh to each of the rebel candidate who have bright prospects of winning so that TRS man would be elected as the chairman. Both ruling party candidates and rebels contested in all the 24 wards.
In Peddapalli district, TRS MLA Korukanti Chander along with TRS candidates in Municipal Corporation of Ramagundam is camping at a resort at Shameerpet in Hyderabd since Thursday. Meanwhile, Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar had directed that Vemulawada Municipality BJP candidates be shifted to an undisclosed camp in Hyderabad.
In Sangareddy, Congress MLA T Jayaprakash Reddy is trying to protect his group while the TRS leaders are out with enticing offers. A ruling party leader reportedly offered up to Rs 10 lakh and a luxury car to the each candidate who wins to support his wife when she contests for the post of chairman.
In Chityal in erstwhile Nalgonda district, TRS rebels, Congress candidates and independents, who are about 34 in number have formed into a Forward Bloc Front and are fighting out with the TRS.