Andhra Pradesh Fights Local Body Elections

Andhra Pradesh has been conducting its local body elections for about a month now. In 4 phases they have completed panchayat elections after a very long drawn out court battle. These local body elections are supposed to be conducted March last year and have been canceled since then owing to corona virus lockdown procedure. Government of Andhra Pradesh have taken the matter very seriously when the state election commissioner last year have cancelled the elections with out any intimation beforehand. This has irked the Jagan’s govt into suspending the term of state election commissioner and replacing him with retired judge. This process is struck down by the high court stating Govt of Andhra Pradesh has over reached its powers and declared the respective bill null and void. This has brought back the election commissioner into his role once again.

Since then election commissioner has restarted the process again and has successfully completed elections to panchayats in four phases. Even tough these elections are fought without the party affiliations it was reported that almost 80% of the villages are won by YSR congress, the ruling party in state of Andhra Pradesh. TDP lead by Chandrababu Naidu has told to be given tough competition to the ruling party in the state. Janasena which is in alliance with BJP has scored some significant wins in the districts of east Godavari but has remained a distant third in the race else where in the state. None of the other players including independents have not fared even decently.

Continuing its journey the election commission has recently released its notification for the elections regarding urban local bodies like municipalities and municipal corporation etc. This comes after almost 12 years of elections for ULBs. On the date of March 10th all the urban local bodies in the state vote to elect its chairman or mayor respectively. This election takes places under party symbols and parties place their candidates under their names. After the 2019 election this is vert first fight for the opposition to fight back after 2019 election debacle. All the three parties have placed their candidates and are fighting aggressively to win maximum cities.

Andhra Pradesh prestigious municipal corporations like Vishakhpatnam and Vijayawada are going to see a very tight fight. In last parliament elections YSRCP have lost Vijayawada seat and present corporation elections almost coincides with Loksabha seat. MP kesineni nani has fielded his own daughter for the seat of the mayor. If YSRCP can win seat of Vijayawada it can seriously dent the prospects of TDP in any of the upcoming elections. Vijayawada is considered to be strong hold of TDP. YSRCP is fighting this election neck to neck. Vizag which has been announced as the executive capital last year by the ruling party is hoping for the people of Vizag to support their decision. This seat has historically seen a triple fight among the YSRCP, TDP, BJP. With janasena in alliance with BJP, there can be a very hard fight for the election. Thus both the seats are prestigious for both the parties.

List of municipal corporations in the state of Andhra Pradesh:

1. Vishakhpatnam
2. Vijayawada
3. Guntur
4. Nellore
5. Ongole
6. Tirupati
7. Rajahmundry
8. Eluru
9. Chittoor
10. Kurnool
11. Anantapur
12. Kakinada
13. Kadapa
14. Machilipatnam
15. Srikakulam
16. Vizianagaram

Different type of urban local bodies(ULB):

1.Municipal corporations- 16

2.Municipalities- 78

3.Nagar panchayats- 31

With TDP and janasena trying to make this election referendum of Jagan’s governance over the last 16 months, failure of YSRCP to win most of the ULBs will give morale boast for the opposition to further agitate regarding supposed mis governance in the state.

Thus these elections which are supposed to be around local issues like sanitation, water have become a referendum about state government. There are serious concerns regarding turning these elections into referendum from various circles. Activists around the state want the elections to be fought about local issues that hardly gets noticed by the state media or state parties. Every city in the state has different problems and different issues but looking at the recent campaign from both the sides none of the local issues have been at forefront.

Results are supposed to come on March 14 2021. Let’s wait to find out what is in the hearts of our urban voters.

Originally published at https://insiderwrites.com on March 11, 2021.