Electoral rolls revision gives rise to talks of GVMC polls

VISAKHAPATNAM: Even though there has been no official announcement regarding elections to the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), the move of the civic body to go on for electoral rolls revision has political parties abuzz that the much-delayed polls could happen soon.
It was at a meeting on February 27 that district collector N Yuvaraj said inclusions and removals from the list of voters would take place in March.But sources said there are many hurdles to be overcome before the actual elections are held. For instance, the reorganisation of wards in the city after the merger of Anakapalli and Bheemili into GVMC has not yet been done. Therefore, do not expect the polls to be held in the first half of this year, said the sources.
Another issue that needs to be sorted out is whether the election to the mayor's post is direct or indirect. If it is direct, then the electorate will elect the mayor and if indirect, the corporators will decide the mayor. Under the previous tenure of Chandrababu Naidu as chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh, the election of the mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Visakhapatnam was direct. But in 2007, after Congress leader YS Rajasekhara Reddy came to power three years earlier, the GVMC mayor's poll was indirect and there has been no Vizag civic polls since then.
Now, it will be again upto Naidu to decide whether to go for direct or indirect mayoral election. In the ruling party, the names of former Vuda chairman S Rehaman, former TDP urban president Zaheer Ahmad and former corporators Ch Pattabhiram and N Bhaskara Rao are doing the rounds for the mayor's post, but the TDP high command is still not sure that they are winners. If the TDP is not able to find a strong mayoral nominee, it can opt for indirect mayoral polls.
Meanwhile, in the opposition YSR Congress, former MLA Malla Vijaya Prasad is pitching to become the mayor. This follows an assurance from party president Jaganmohan Reddy that he will be given a ticket when the GVMC polls are held.
For the ruling party, apart from the dilemma over the mayor, it is likely to face seat-sharing issue with its ally BJP. As per initial indications, the TDP is willing to part with 30 seats to its alliance partner but the latter wants more. At present, GVMC has 72 seats, and following the merger of Anakapalli and Bheemli to the Vizag municipal corporation to form the GVMC, the number has been proposed to be raised to 84 and could even go up to 90.
According to GVMC sources, the voters list would be prepared after the reorganisations of wards and added that the process would take three to four months.