The Congress party, which is making tall claims about its victory in the cooperative societies’ elections in the state which were actually held on non-party basis, is now said to be trying to use the same tactic in the local body elections as well.

“We are yet to decide whether we should hold the elections on the party basis or non-party basis. We are making a thorough study of the issue and will take a decision appropriately,” minister for labour Danam Nagender said.

If the elections are held on non-party basis, the Congress can once again resort to large scale irregularities in the enrolment of voters and polling and then claim that it has won majority of the gram panchayats, mandal and zilla parishads.

For the last few years, the practice had been that the election of sarpanches was on non-party basis, but the election of Mandal Parishad and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency members (MPTCs and ZPTCs) was on party basis. However, the MP president and ZP chairperson were being elected from among the members indirectly, depending on the party strength.

“Let the government conduct elections on party basis, with the candidates contesting on their respective party symbols. It will be the real fight and people will decide which party has their mandate,” TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu said.