It has become a common phenomenon in the Congress party in Telangana for the last five years that most of its leaders who get elected in any election are quickly jumping into the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
In 2014 assembly elections, the Congress had won 23 assembly seats, of which eight MLAs defected to the TRS within a year.
Then assembly speaker S Madhusudhana Chary did not take any action despite repeated petitions filed by the party seeking to disqualify them.
Again, in 2018 December elections, the Congress won 19 MLA seats, but 12 of them defected to the TRS within a few months.
This time, they defected to the TRS en masse, so that they could escape disqualification under the anti-defection law.
Even in the last year’s mandal parishad and zilla parishad elections, many elected representatives of the Congress defected to the TRS without facing any disqualification.
This time, the Pradesh Congress Committee has come out with an innovative idea. It has decided to put a pre-condition to all the candidates who are being given tickets for the municipal elections scheduled to be held on January 22.
The condition is the candidates, before filing their nominations for the posts of municipal councillors and corporators should submit an affidavit on a stamp paper of Rs 20 denomination, stating that they would not defect to other political parties once they get elected on behalf of the Congress.
They should give a written undertaking on the bond paper that they would abide by the party whip during the election of municipal chairpersons and mayors in their respective municipalities and corporations.
“If they violate the party whip and vote for the TRS or other party candidates, they would not only lose the post, but also be liable for criminal prosecution. This clause will be clearly mentioned in the affidavit they would be signing,” the PCC said.
The notification for elections to 120 municipalities and nine municipal corporations in Telangana was issued on Wednesday and the nomination process commenced simultaneously. The State Election Commission announced the schedule late on Tuesday night.
The SEC would take up scrutiny of nominations 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 would be January 14 and the final list of contesting candidates would be announced the same day.
Polling would be held on January 22 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and counting of votes and declaration of results would be on January 25.
