As the campaign entered top gear in GHMC elections, a look at stakes of different parties shows that all of them will have some take away of varying nature at the end.
For the ruling TRS, it is virtually a mid-term appraisal on its performance since the party will have no more tests of a larger size to face until the next general elections.
The elections to Warangal and Khammam municipal corporations are due in March and also to Siddipet, Atchampet, Jadcherla, Nakrekal, Paloncha, Manuguru, Mandamarri and five other municipalities on different occasions in the next three years but they hardly represent a large sample to project people’s preference.
The GHMC polls are a litmus test for all parties because they are happening in the State capital where one-third of the population resided and is home to 24 of the 119 Assembly constituencies. The parties will want to wrest control of the municipal body in the city for several reasons, one of which is owing to a huge land bank of the government.
The TRS will also look to win the polls to erase the memory of party’s loss in Dubbak Assembly by-polls from public mind. Like it did last time, it will want to win mayorship on its own and check the strides of BJP.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen will like to have TRS as its alliance partner remaining at its mercy in the election of the Mayor.
It was precisely for this reason that an AIMIM MLA Mumtaz Ahemd Khan went overboard while targeting the TRS.
The AIMIM is aware that though it is expanding in the country, it can not afford to lose its base in old city of Hyderabad which had been its springboard ever since inception.
The TRS won 99 divisions and the AIMIM 42 last time but the former did not require any help to gain mayorship.
The AIMIM and the BJP, on the other hand, were involved in hate speeches of late in what could be seen as attempts at communal polarisation of voters. The BJP is also trying to usurp the position of Congress as alternative to the TRS.
The Congress which won only three of the 150 divisions last time will try to score more than the BJP (4 seats last time) and finds that all its rivals are on an anti-Congress platform.
For the TDP which won one seat, and the Left parties that drew blank, any victory would be a boost.
