Parties speed up candidate selection process for Secunderabad Cantonment Board polls

SECUNDERABAD: Though the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has received pleas from major political parties including Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress to conduct Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) elections on party symbols, no decision has been taken yet.
Meanwhile, the political parties are expediting possibilities to choose suitable candidates in a quest to win all eight civilian wards in the polls, deeming them of high importance.
For instance, candidates with TRS support had won six out of eight wards in the Cantonment Board polls in 2015. The party has set its- eye on winning all the eight wards this time. It had won the Cantonment assembly seat in 2018 elections. Though, two senior ministers, namely T Padma Rao and Talasani Srinivas Yadav used to take responsibility of selecting the candidates in the Cantonment, the final decision is made by TRS party’s high command. They will take the opinion of Cantonment MLA G Sayanna too.
Regarding Congress, the selection of the candidates was usually decided by the TPCC chief. This time, senior Congress leader A Revanth Reddy won the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha seat in 2019 and is likely take active part in selecting the candidates in the Cantonment Board polls. The Cantonment assembly constituency comes under his Parliament constituency.
The BJP is also keen to win the majority of the wards in these polls. Senior leader N Ramchandra Rao is expediting the candidates to maximise the winning possibilities. “BJP has many aspirants in every civilian ward and we have to choose the correct person. The party will take into consideration various aspects like people’s support, services rendered to the party and loyalty to the party,” sources in BJP told TOI.
Considering the fact that the number of aspirants in every political party has crossed 10 and there is a threat of rebels, the process of selecting the candidates may become a tough task for parties.
The hectic schedule of selection of candidates by political parties will begin after MoD issues the election notification.