Panchayati Raja?

KCR looks to sweep the state’s first panchayat polls, but a rollback of reservations could hurt him

On January 1, state election commissioner V. Nagi Reddy announced the schedule for the first panchayat polls since the creation of the state. As many as 14,952,058 rural voters are to cast their votes in three phases between January 21 and 30 to elect sarpanches and ward members across 12,751 gram panchayats.

Though this election is not being contested on political party symbols, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao, fresh from his assembly election triumph, views the rural polls as an opportunity to cast his party’s net wider. The chief minister’s strategy is to capitalise on the popular support his party enjoys for a firmer grip on the local bodies that have a say in spending rural development funds. KCR wants to consolidate his party position by holding out fresh promises on development issues. The polls are also expected

to serve as the first test for his son K.T. Rama Rao, who was appointed the TRS working president after the party swept the assembly election.

In the last panchayat polls, held as part of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh in 2013, the Congress claimed victory in the districts that are now part of Telangana. The TRS won only 470 panchayat seats.

Significantly, the polls will also test KCR’s popularity after the state government reduced reservations in the panchayat elections from 62.5 per cent to 50 per cent, in keeping with the Supreme Court orders. Rival parties had demanded that the enumeration of Backward Classes be completed before announcing the panchayat polls, but KCR decided to comply with the high court direction to hold it before January 31.

KCR’s cabinet, which has only a deputy CM besides himself, had on December 16, reduced reservations for SCs, STs and BCs through an ordinance. The worst affected were the BCs, whose share dropped from 34 to 23 per cent, though they constitute 54 per cent of the population. Telangana Congress chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy says KCR chose to ignore reservations according to population, and is relying on an electoral roll where 2.2 million first-time voters are missing. Reddy alleges this is to keep the Congress and other opposition parties out. “KCR continues to play foul,” he says.