Critics say that is to bestow a huge first-mover advantage to the ruling party
Jaipur has competition as India's pink city from an unexpected quarter-Hyderabad. Ahead of local elections, due by this month-end, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti or TRS has gone to town, with 9,000 hoardings that use its colour - pink - to show off different schemes and promises that will turn Hyderabad into a "dream city."
If that seems like overkill, the TRS isn't embarrassed. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao - "KCR" colloquially - appears now on virtually every pillar and post in the city. "Yes, he is everywhere. He deserves to be seen," said his daughter, parliamentarian K Kavitha.
This is the first election for municipal bodies since Hyderabad was assigned as a shared capital for 10 years to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, created as India's newest state in June 2014. Though KCR swept the Telangana election held in 2014, his party did poorly in Hyderabad, winning just four of a possible 24 seats to the state legislature. The party sees its main rival as the BJP-TDP combine that won 13 assembly seats.
This poster in old city says "Car Hamara, sarkar Hamara, shehar Hamara, mayor Hamara"
So countless posters and billboards talk of 24-hour uninterrupted power supply, world-class roads, 2-bedroom homes for underprivileged sections, SHE-teams that include female police officers to ensure a safe city for women. Voters have also been wooed by waiving over 450 crore rupees of water taxes due from poorer neighbourhoods.
"It is a misuse of government machinery. And they are announcing big-ticket sops now when they failed to talk about any of these issues in the assembly election,'' an official in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation which governs the city, said to NDTV.
TRS has gone to town, with 9,000 hoardings that use its colour - pink - to show off different schemes and promises
The TRS government has pushed through new rules, by issuing a government order amending the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act of 1955 (without going to assembly) to allow the election to be held within 15 days of the polls being notified.
Critics say that is to bestow a huge first-mover advantage to the ruling party. "To move early was our strategy and it will pay off benefits,'' admitted Kavitha, who along with her brother, state IT minister KT Rama Rao, is virtually leading the campaign of the party in the city.