BJP seeks Kakinada civic polls, urges govt to end uncertainty
Kakinada, Aug 30 (TNT): The BJP Kakinada district unit on Sunday demanded that elections to the Kakinada Municipal Corporation be conducted along with elections to other municipalities, and urged the state government to end the uncertainty over the poll process.
Addressing a press conference here, BJP district president Bikkina Visweswara Rao, senior leader Duvvuru Subrahmanyam, district general secretary Kundala Sai Kumar Yadav and vice-president Gisala Srinivasa Rao said the corporation elections should not be delayed by linking them with the proposed merger of neighbouring gram panchayats.
The BJP leaders said that if the merger of the villages with the corporation posed technical hurdles to holding elections immediately, the government should conduct elections to the corporation and the proposed merger villages separately.
They said the villages proposed for merger had not witnessed elections for the past 15 years, while the tenure of the elected council of the Kakinada Municipal Corporation ended in 2022.
Both were continuing under special officers in the absence of elected local bodies, they said.
The leaders attributed the prevailing uncertainty to a lack of foresight on the part of officials and said elections to local bodies should be held promptly after the expiry of the tenure of elected bodies, in line with the spirit of the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments.
Referring to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s recent remarks, the BJP leaders alleged that some political parties were approaching courts to delay local body elections as they were apprehensive about facing them.
They also claimed that the delay in conducting local body elections was affecting the release of funds from the 16th Finance Commission, thereby hampering development activities in local bodies.
The BJP leaders said courts should also consider the larger objectives behind petitions relating to local body elections, as prolonged litigation and the absence of elected bodies could adversely affect development.
BJP leaders Chodisetti Ramesh, Musaliganti Suresh, Pydah Ravi, Ghantasala Govindarajulu, Mare Bujji and others were present at the press conference.
TNT TMR
