The forthcoming elections to the municipalities and corporations across Telangana are going to be an acid test to Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
According to official sources, the elections to 138 municipalities, besides corporations, are likely to be held on August 11. The government would soon inform the State Election Commission for taking up elections.
Sources said that the SEC might issue a notification on July 21. Before that the SEC may release the voters' list as per the wards in the municipalities.
Later on, the reservations would be finalised to SC, ST, BC and women. The reservations would be finalised and published on July 19.
The TRS received a setback in the Lok Sabha elections by winning just nine out of 17 MP seats in the state, but bounced back in the local body elections by capturing all the 32 zilla parishads and 90 per cent of the mandal parishads. But they were purely local issues, where the people voted for the local candidates.
However, in the municipal elections, the electorate would be urban and educated, where the problems and election issues would be different. The TRS would be facing a tough battle from both the Congress and the BJP.
If the TRS can repeat the performance of local bodies and the assembly elections in municipal polls, too, then KCR will gain enough strength to rule the state without any hassles till 2023.
