Telangana: Pace set for civic polls

Hyderabad: Just as the by-election to the Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly is coming to an end, the State Election Commission (SEC) has issued notification for elections to two municipal corporations and five municipalities which means that the poll fever in the State would continue till end of April.

According to the notification, election to the seven Urban Legislative Bodies (ULBs) of the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation, Khammam Municipal Corporation, Atchampet, Siddipet, Nakrekaral, Jadcherla and Kothur municipalities will be completed by end of April.

The Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation has 66 wards while Khammam Municipal Corporation has 60 wards. Among five municipalities, Siddipet is the largest with 43 wards while Kothur is smallest with only 12 wards.

By-election to nine divisions of various local bodies will be held on the same day. They include one division of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

Lingojiguda division vacancy arose following the death of BJP corporator a few days after his election in December last year.

The nomination process would start from 10.30 am to 5 pm from Friday. The last date to file nominations is April 18 (Sunday). The scrutiny of nominations would take place on April 19, the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 22.

The final list of contesting candidates would be published on the same day. Polling would be held on April 30 with ballot boxes and counting and results would be announced on May 3 from 8 am onwards. The ward wise electoral rolls would be published by the returning officers of municipalities/ corporations on April 16.

There are 11,26,221 voters including 5,53,862 male, 5,72,121 female and 236 other category voters in the seven ULBs going for polls. Total number of polling stations are 1,532 and all these would be covered by videography, webcasting and micro observers. Over 9,000 polling staff would be used in the election duties.

As per the SEC guidelines for campaign by the candidates, only a group of five persons, including candidates will be allowed for door-to-door campaign. The convoy of vehicles should maintain distance of ten metres between each vehicle.

There should be a gap of half-an-hour between roadshows of two different political parties/ candidates in the same route. Public gatherings/ rallies would be conducted subject to adherence to extant Covid-19 guidelines, said the SEC Parthasarathi.

The non-SC/ST/BC candidates in municipality should deposit Rs 2,500 and for SC/ST/BC candidates is Rs 1,250 and in Corporations the non-SC/ST/BC candidates is Rs 5,000 and Rs 2,500 for SC/ST/BC candidates. The candidate in GHMC limits can spend Rs 5 lakh, in other corporations it is Rs 1.5 lakh and in municipality Rs 1 lakh.

The Commission has provided postal ballot facility to electors who are marked as persons with disabilities (PwD), electors above the age of 80 years and Covid-19 positive voters.