The Congress wants its candidates for the Telangana municipal polls to execute bonds to prevent defections that have hit the party hard in the last five years.
After suffering large scale defection of its elected representatives into the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the last five years, the Congress in Telangana has set a pre-condition for its candidates for the municipal elections in the state on January 22, notification for which was issued on Wednesday.
Candidates selected by the party for filing nominations for the posts of municipal councillors and corporators should execute a bond on a stamp paper of denomination of Rs 20, stating that they would not defect to other political parties once they are elected on a Congress ticket.
“In the signed affidavit, the Congress candidates should declare that once they get elected as municipal councillors and corporators, they would strictly follow the party whip during the election of municipal chairpersons and mayors in their respective municipalities and corporations,” PCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said.
He also pointed out that the candidates should also acknowledge in the affidavit that that they would be liable for criminal prosecution, if they crossed the floor and vote in favour of other parties. “This condition has been introduced only to prevent the elected Congress candidates from being poached by the rival parties, particularly the TRS, to capture the municipalities and municipal corporations,” the PCC chief said.
Reddy said the candidates would be selected by the party committees constituted at the district level and the list of candidates would be finalized by January 9. The Form-B (a letter from the party declaring the party affiliation of the candidate) would be issued to the candidates on January 11 and 12, after they submitted the stamped affidavit, the PCC chief said.
The Congress witnessed largescale defection of its party legislators into the TRS in the last two terms. After coming to power in the newly-formed Telangana state in 2014, the TRS poached as many as eight out of 23 Congress MLAs over a period of time.
In the second term after December 2018 elections, the Congress won only 19 seats in the 119-member assembly, but 12 of them defected to the TRS within a few months. The Congress also lost another seat in the by-election to Huzurnagar assembly seat. It is now left with just six seats and has lost the main opposition status.
Apart from its legislators, the Congress also witnessed defection of several of its public representatives in local bodies and municipalities into the TRS in the last five years. “That is precisely why the PCC has come up with the idea of taking an affidavit from the elected representatives stating that they are prepared to face criminal prosecution if they changed their loyalty to other parties,” Reddy said.
The State Election Commission late on Tuesday night announced the schedule for elections to 120 municipalities and nine municipal corporations in Telangana. The nomination process began on Wednesday. The last date for filing of nominations is January 10.
The scrutiny of nominations will be done on January 11 and appeals if any against the rejection of nominations would be disposed of the next day. The last day for withdrawal of nominations is January 14 and the final list of contesting candidates would be announced the same day. Polling is scheduled for January 22 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m and results will be declared on January 25.
Most of the municipalities and municipal corporations are dominated by the TRS.
Prasanta Patnaik