Cocktail parties and sops galore: Candidates splurge in run up to Telangana & AP Bar Council Elections

The wooden stairwell leading up to Court number one was littered with campaign literature and the canteen and Bar rooms were veritable hives of activity. Bar Council elections in the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh will be held on June 29..Candidates and their supporters have shifted into overdrive to secure victories. WhatsApp inboxes are awash with impassioned pleas for support..While hosting a lunch for well-wishers prior to an election is a common practice, inviting the entire Bar is not. However, according to sources, a contestant at the Rangareddy Bar did precisely this yesterday..This was not the only event that preceded the Bar Council elections in the city of Hyderabad and in districts across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Cocktail parties with lavish spreads have become a regular occurrence in the run up to polling day..Eighty-six candidates have been given the nod to contest the Bar Council elections in what will be India’s youngest Bar Council (Telangana), while one hundred and seven candidates will contest from Andhra Pradesh. Twenty-five candidates each will make the cut..This is the first time since the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh that elections to two separate Bar Councils will be held. Whilst they were slated to go to polls in August 2017, certain administrative impediments meant they had to be postponed. The Andhra Pradesh Bar Council is currently being run by a special committee appointed by the Bar Council of India (BCI)..But what is leading to this unprecedented splurging?.A candidate who spoke to Bar & Bench on the condition of anonymity said that besides the competition having increased in terms of the number of candidates, candidates with little or no practice have thrown their hat into the ring. This had led to a whopping eighteen candidates contesting from Rangareddy this time..“I have been an advocate for over a decade now and barely recall having seen many of the candidates who are contesting from Rangareddy, in court.”.Another source corroborated the fact that unlike before, where lawyers of repute would generally contest, a majority of contestants this time are virtually non-practicing lawyers..“As far as Rangareddy is concerned, a number of candidates who shot to prominence in the agitation for the separate state of Telangana have declared their candidature. They have little or no practice as lawyers.”.He also said that Rangareddy was a rich Bar and people had become more prosperous over the years leading to them splurging on elections..An advocate with over twenty-five years of experience at the High Court had a different explanation. He said that the elections had become highly politicised, with contestants relying on their party affiliations to secure a victory..“In the past, people would vote for a candidate based on his individual reputation and credibility. Now political parties have begun to lend muscle to some candidates, as a victory would boost the morale of their party cadre. They would be able to say, ‘look we control the Bar Council as well’.”.The involvement of political parties naturally means an influx of cash into the process. Earlier, voters in Panchayat elections would cast their vote for a well respected local whom they knew personally. Now they cast votes for a party, and the credentials of an individual have ceased to count..“Unfortunately the Bar Council has failed to buck this trend”, the veteran lawyer added..While some reports suggested that candidates were dishing out sops like electronic appliances, gadgets, and gizmos, and were spending crores of rupees, this could not be independently verified. Many of those whom we spoke to said that they had heard this was happening, but none of them had been personally approached..N Renuka, who is secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Bar Council, told Bar & Bench that Telangana had 20,072 voters, while 27,672 voters were eligible to cast their vote in Andhra Pradesh. She added that these figures were as of May 2018 and that there might be a slight variation as of date..She said that polling officers had been appointed to oversee the conduct of the election across 88 locations in Telangana and 181 locations in Andhra Pradesh..Justice A Shankar Narayana will be the returning officer for the elections in Telangana, while Justice P Keshava Rao will preside over elections to the Andhra Pradesh Bar Council..Counting of votes will happen in late August and results will be announced soon thereafter.