For Congress, by-poll in Andhra Pradesh may have come way too early

Hyderabad: Announcement of the schedule for by-elections to one Lok Sabha seat and 18 Assembly seats has come as a bolt from the blue for the already beleaguered Congress party in the state as it appears to be unprepared for them.

The party was hoping against hope that the by-elections would be held only in August even though the Election Commission had been making it clear that it would complete the process well ahead of the Presidential election.

Also, Congress has been claiming that it would conduct elections to Urban Local Bodies in June ahead of the by-elections as it was unable to draw statutory grants from the Centre due to lack of elected Councils in Urban Local Bodies (ULB) since October 2010.

With the announcement of the by-poll schedule, the ruling Congress' plans have totally gone awry.

In the last ten days, the Kiran Kumar Reddy government had been releasing "special funds" to constituencies facing by-elections but it could issue necessary orders only in respect of the 13 Assembly segments.

Now, development work sanctioned in those 13 constituencies cannot be taken up as the model code of conduct has come into force with immediate effect.

The Chief Minister had planned to conduct the election campaign in all the constituencies by using the government's mass contact programme Prajapatham. However, he could have accomplished the task only in four segments.

Worse is the case of the party which could not finalise its candidates in many constituencies even as the rival parties Telugu Desam and YSR Congress have completed the process and are already racing ahead in the campaign.