People will decide Party candidates in MPTC by-elections

Hyderabad, Jun.17

The Lok Satta Party will be opening a new chapter in India's political history by fielding candidates chosen by people in primary elections in the upcoming MPTCs/ZPTC by-elections in 15 districts of the State.

The Lok Satta Party, which is committed to ushering in a new political culture, will shortlist candidates who are not tainted by charges of crime and corruption, but otherwise qualified and ask registered voters to choose one of the candidates in open primary election by secret ballot. The candidate selected by citizens will be the Lok Satta candidate.

Announcing this here today, Mr. D.V.V.S. Varma, State Secretary of the Lok Satta Party, told a media conference that the Lok Satta would like to put an end to the traditional parties' culture of fielding sons and daughters of leaders or those with money and muscle power.

The decision was taken by a joint meeting of the Political and Organisational Committees of the State Lok Satta Party, chaired by Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, party's National Coordinator, yesterday and today.

The party, which has already announced its decision to contest Hyderabad, Tirupati and Badvel municipal elections, will now be contesting all elections in the State, Mr. Varma announced, saying the party has now built up its party machinery almost all over the State.

The Lok Satta Party will strictly adhere to the ceiling on expenditure fixed by the Election Commission in all elections.

Campaign against Belt Shops from July 5

The Lok Satta also decided to launch a massive campaign against the liquor evil which is ruining nearly 50 lakh families all over the State. The poor people spent nearly Rs.15000 crore on liquor consumption per year -"much more than what the Government spent on their welfare.

In the first phase, the Mahila Lok Satta, during its "jana rajakiya yatra" beginning on July 5, will collect information about belt shops and publish it. There are 1.5 lakh illegal belt shops run by nearly 8000 licensed liquor shops in the State. The Chief Minister had told the Assembly that there were no belt shops and if anybody gave information about them, they would be shut down. The Lok Satta campaign is aimed at opening the eyes of the Government, Mr. Varma said.

In the second phase, the Lok Satta will undertake a 50-day campaign from August 15 to October 2 all over the State demanding that liquor consumption be curbed. If the Government does not shut down belt shops by October 2, the party will mobilise people for direct action.

Mr. Varma told the media that the Congress and the Telugu Desam were Tweedledum and Tweedledee in their policies on local self-govrenment and liquor consumption. Both parties had miserably failed in devolving powers and resources on local governments and in restricting liquor consumption.