YSRCP urban local bodies may see a slew of defections

Ongole: A large number of the corporators, councillors, and ward members in the urban local bodies won by the YSRCP in the erstwhile Prakasam district are planning to defect into the TDP soon.

In the erstwhile Prakasam district, there is Ongole Municipal Corporation, Markapur, Chirala, Kandukur municipalities, Addanki, Darsi, Chimakurthy, Giddalur and Kanigiri Nagar Panchayats as urban local bodies.

All of them except Darsi have members from the YSRCP in majority number and got the mayor and chairpersons positions. The elections to the AP Assembly changed the situation at the ground level as the local MLAs at the YSRCP-dominated local bodies belong to the TDP. YSRCP won 43 of 50 divisions in Ongole Municipal Council. TDP won six divisions while the Jana Sena Party won one division. Just a few days before the elections, five YSRCP corporators defected to TDP increasing its strength to 11.

After the Assembly election results were announced, sources said that the TDP government will amend the Andhra Pradesh Municipalities Act to introduce a no-confidence motion on the mayor and chairpersons before they complete the required duration in the office.

The news on the amendment alerted the OMC mayor, who started attempts to defect to TDP again. A few days ago, she organised a meeting with corporators from YSRCP and who wish to support her.

As many as 27 corporators from the remaining 38 corporators met her, and a majority of them agreed to follow her if the TDP agreed to their demands. They complained that they had invested a lot of amount in their election and the necessary work in their divisions, but the YSRCP government didn’t help them.

Learning about the meeting, Balineni Srinivas Reddy invited corporators and mayor to his residence in Hyderabad and tried to pacify them. He told them not to make decisions in hasty and assured them to discuss the issue again in a few days in Ongole, after speaking to the seniors at the party. But, the corporators are said to have taken a decision already and are trying to meet the MLA Damacharla Janardhan to announce their decision.

A senior corporator from the defecting group told The Hans India that to avoid legal complications and disqualification on the grounds of defection, their group which consists of more than 20 corporators- more than 1/3 of the 43 YSRCP corporators in the council, is planning to split from the YSRCP corporators, and then merge with the TDP later. He said that the situation in the other ULBs in the district is the same, and all of them would be led by TDP soon. He mentioned that they are trying to make a truce with the TDP leaders in their respective divisions first and meet the MLA very soon.