Hyderabad, October 20: The much-awaited GHMC polls are to be held in November, with the State Election Commission (SEC) asserting that the poll notification would be issued by the end of this month.
150 wards
The entire election process, including that of the Mayor and corporators of 150 wards, would have to be completed within 28 days of the issue of the notification. “We have tentatively decided the probable dates of issue of notification as October 24 or 28”, State Election Commissioner A.V.S. Reddy told a hurriedly called press conference on Monday.
The summoning of the press corps at a short notice to Budha Bhavan, headquarters of the SEC, sparked off intense speculation about the notification being issued hours after Chief Minister K. Rosaiah declared open the 11.6-km PVNR Elevated Expressway, a long pending prestigious project taken up by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA).
The SEC said there was shortage of manpower to conduct the elections as personnel of the GHMC, police and revenue departments were deployed on rehabilitation assignments in the flood-ravaged Mahabunagar and Kurnool districts. If the government fails to provide manpower for conduct of elections, he would request deployment of the CRPF. The conduct of polls to the GHMC would require at least 40,000 personnel, it is estimated.
Quite a few TV channels jumped the gun and began running newsbreaks about the notification being issued, while some even speculated on the date of the poll and on the preparedness of different political parties to face polls in the State capital, which could possibly be an indicator of the public mood on the ruling party in the post-YSR period.
An amused Dr. Reddy appealed to the media to show restraint as their overenthusiastic reporting was causing confusion.
-Agencies