Naidu loses the modem link

The results of the local body polls in Andhra Pradesh can be seen as a verdict for change from the hi-tech approach to governance to policies focussed on farmers, Dalits and the deprived, writes R. J. Rajendra Prasad.

THERE IS an electoral verdict in favour of change in Andhra Pradesh - a change from the hi-tech approach to governance to policies that are focussed on farmers, Dalits and the deprived.

The suicides by powerloom weavers of Sircilla, prevalence of untouchability and superstition in districts such as Ranga Reddy and Mahbubnagar, the plight of young girls working in cotton fields, all these have contributed to the atmosphere of distress.

The elections to the Zilla Parishads and Mandal Parishads were fought on a party basis, and so it was a kind of a general election. The Telugu Desam has been in power for nearly seven years and the anti-incumbency factor appears to have played a part now, after the party won a decisive mandate in the 1999 September Assembly elections.

Though these were local elections, only Statewide political and economic issues figured during the campaign. The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, spoke of his development effort and the empowerment of women he achieved in the State, through the four lakh DWCRA groups. The Congress(I) promised to give free power to farmers, and predicted that the TDP would hike the tariff once the elections were over. The Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS) had a single-point agenda of Statehood for the region.

The Left parties had an understanding with the Congress(I) but they spoke against the World Bank and reforms, and said that Mr. Chandrababu Naidu had become ``bonded labour of the World Bank''.

However, the verdict cannot be treated as against the reforms or in favour of a separate Telengana, but as a public desire for a balance between the reform process and the welfare schemes. In recent years, the allocations for the Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes have come down, and even the budget sanctions are not spent fully, a fact to be the focus of Dalit organisations at a seminar next week.

The TDP suffered a setback as it won only 10 ZPs out of 22 - at Srikakulam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Anantapur, Kurnool, Mahbubnagar and Adilabad. The Congress(I) won four (Chittoor, Cuddapah, Visakhapatnam and Nellore) and the TRS bagged Nizamabad. The Congress(I) can share power with the TRS in Warangal, Karimnagar, Medak and Ranga Reddy, and with the Left parties in Khammam and Nalgonda. The Vizianagarm ZP has a tie - both the Congress(I) and the TDP won 17 seat each. The chairman is to be chosen by the toss of a coin on July 23.

The TDP won nearly 50 per cent of the seats at the Zilla Parishad and Mandal Parishad level. It tally was 512 seats out of the 1094 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) while the Congress(I) got 445, the TRS 84, the CPI(M) 15, the BJP 13 and the CPI 8. The Bahujan Samaj Party of Mr. Kansi Ram, which contested in the Paderu region of Visakhapatnam district, got three seats.

Mr. Chandrababu Naidu sees the verdict as reflecting his failure to convincingly explain to the people the development that has taken place in the State. He believes there is nothing wrong with reforms in the power sector, but that people are angered by faulty bills that are thrust on them and the bureaucratic procedures required to correct them. The anti-power tariff agitation of August last year, in which two persons were killed in police firing, appears to have had an impact now, a year later. The farmers' distress was due to lack of market for rice, chillies, cotton, tobacco and ginger. The State Government pressured the Centre and got relaxation of specifications and mopped up about 70 lakh tonnes of rice, even though the FCI godowns were full with last year's produce. But still the farmers were unhappy that they were left with grain without buyers. The panchayat elections gave them an opportunity to vent their feelings.

The separate Telengana issue became a big hit during the campaign. Mr. K. Chandrasekhara Rao, who resigned as Deputy Speaker and founded the TRS, campaigned in a helicopter to address about 60 meetings. But the results show that his message carried an impact only in four districts - Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Medak. The TRS drew a blank in Khammam district, it got one seat in Ranga Reddy, two in Mahbubnagar and only five in Adilabad. Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao explains that he was not keen on winning seats, ``but this is really a wonder that a 70-day-old party has achieved so much.''

The Congress(I) leaders attribute their success to the decision to leave the choice of contestants to district leaders. The ZPTC and MPTC candidates were chosen by local groups in the presence of a party observer from Hyderabad.

The panchayat elections were delayed by a year because the State Government wanted a three-tier system, a move supported by all political parties in the State including the Congress(I). In this system, only the sarpanch of a village would be elected on a non- party basis, while the sarpanches elect the Mandal president and these Mandal presidents elected the Zilla Parishad chairman.

In the five-tier system in vogue since 1995, the electorate has a chance to elect the members of the ZPTCs, each representing a Mandal, on a party basis like in a general election. These ZPTC members elect the ZP chairman, and the Mandal presidents have no say in this election. The criticism is that those elected by the people, the ZPTC and MPTC members, have no executive powers to influence decision making, except to elect the chairperson. And the sarpanches and Mandal presidents, who have vast powers, have no say in the decision making at the Mandal and ZP level because they are only ``special invitees'' without the right to vote.

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