Panchayat polls: Win-win for all

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Hyderabad: Leaders of all three major political parties of the state, the Congress, Telugu Desam and the YSR Congress, on Wednesday claimed to have won a majority number of gram panchayats in the first phase of polls held on Tuesday.
Since gram panchayat polls are held on a non-party basis and the State Election Commission does not release any official list detailing which party got how many seats, the political parties are releasing their own figures putting themselves ahead.
Addressing the media, Congress legislature party secretary and senior MLA from Rajahmundry Routhu Suryaprakash Rao said that of the total 6,506 gram panchayats including those declared unanimous, the Congress had bagged 1,965 panchayats while the Telugu Desam had got 1,893 and the YSRC 1,457.
He released a list of district-wise results, which gave the Telangana 474 gram panchayats and the remaining to “others”.
But even according to the “official Congress list” the ruling party got majority in only seven of the 21 districts that went to polls (polls were postponed in Khammam district due to rains), while the TD got majority in eight districts, the YSRC two and the TRS in four districts.
Surprising result from CM’s fort
Surprisingly, in Chittoor, the native district of Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, the Congress came third with only 62 gram panchayats while the YSRC bagged first place with 93. The TD came second with 88 gram panchayats.
In Vizianagaram, PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana’s home district, the Congress won with 133 gram panchayats with the YSRC coming in second with 109 and the TD third with 74. In Medak, native district of Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha and TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the Congress managed only 67 gram panchayats, whereas the TRS got 144 and the TD 38.In YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy's Kadapa district, his party got 125 gram panchayats while the Congress got only 59 and TD 21.
Meanwhile YSRC leader Dr M.V. Mysoora Reddy came out with a list of figures claiming his party won 2,360 gram panchayats, the highest in the state.Not to be outdone, TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu also addressed a conference where he claimed the TD had got the most gram panchayats.