HYDERABAD: The political parties in Telangana heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday as it emerged that the women’s reservation would come into force only after delimitation of the constituencies.
This apart, the bogey of ‘One Nation, One Election’ too has disappeared as the Bill will not be coming up in the current session of Parliament as Ram Nath Kovind Committee is yet to complete its work. Now, the parties are getting busy with the election preparations. They are focusing on the campaign, selection of candidates, devising strategies, and preparing manifestos reflecting the aspirations of the people for the Assembly elections.
The BRS, which has already announced candidates for 115 out of 119 Assembly Constituencies, will now finalise the names of contestants for the remaining four segments.Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is concentrating on the Assembly election campaign and manifesto in the wake of the Congress coming out with six guarantees, which would more or less be the grand old party’s manifesto for Telangana polls.
The BRS chief is getting feedback form his leaders on the kind of impact the Congress’ guarantees would have on the electorate and how to neutralise its influence on the voters. The grand old party will expedite its election process, prepare the ground by finalising the candidates, planning massive publicity for six guarantees announced by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Kharge at the recent Vijayabheri public meeting.
The Congress received more than 1,000 applications for poll tickets and the Pradesh Election Committee shortlisted the candidates’ names last week.The Election Screening Committee is scheduled to meet in Delhi on Wednesday. The committee members, including TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy and Uttam Kumar Reddy, are currently in Delhi attending the special session of Parliament while the CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramakra has already visited Delhi to attend the Screening Committee meeting.
The sources said that the Congress is likely to release its first list of candidates by the end of this month and the second list in the second week of October. The third list is likely to be announced based on who will join the Congress from which party.
The Congress’ Campaign Committee is planning to spread the message of six guarantees among the people extensively. It is planning wall writings, publication of posters, sending messages on WhatsApp, Facebook, X, and making bulk calls to reach out to the electorate.
Meanwhile, the BJP, which had received nearly 6000 applications for tickets, has constituted a committee to screen the applications. The saffron party also constituted several committees for the elections and is focused on touring villages across the State for a direct connect with people and constituency-level leaders.
The senior BJP leaders, who are interested in contesting, are campaigning in their segments to reach out to the people. They are focusing on Prime Minister Modi’s schemes which are in implementation in other States but not in Telangana.
The BJP has decided to release its first list of candidates by the end of this month or the first week of October.The political parties are expecting the notification for the elections to the State Assembly any day after October 10. The officials of the ECI are scheduled to visit the State for three days beginning October 3 to assess its poll preparedness.