The panchayat elections are being held on a ‘partyless’ basis. This means there should be no political interference or participation. But Chandrababu Naidu released his party manifesto for the elections. Quickly seizing this opportunity, YCP Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy demanded State Election Commissioner N. Ramesh Kumar to take action against Naidu if he was really unbiased.
The YCP has been accusing Ramesh Kumar of being an agent of Chandrababu for a long time now. The TDP manifesto came as a big chance for it to attack the SEC once again.
The TDP manifesto was named ‘Palle Pragathi – Pancha Sutralu’ (Five Plans for Village Growth). After releasing this, Naidu gave a call for all the panchayats to elect his party-supported candidates for achieving better and cleaner villages.
Naidu argued that the elections might be partyless but the political influence would be there in every aspect of life. The panchayat elections were actually indirect in nature and the candidates would be getting support from one party or another.
The TDP’s five plans for village future development would focus on protected drinking water, safety assurance, model villages, self-sufficiency and citizen services with reduction in property tax. Each of the 15,000 panchayats would get Rs. 70 lakh to Rs. 80 lakh funds under the NREGS scheme directly from the Centre. Also, Finance Commission funds were also being directly given to the villages.
Naidu talked as if the villages could function better with their self-government without the need for the State Government funds. Expectedly, Peddireddy reacted sharply to this.