Hyderabad, Dec. 19 -- The just concluded gram panchyayat elections in Telangana have witnessed all kinds of violations from distribution of gifts, allegations of wrong counting and rigging, complaints of black magic performances to election violence.

Local body elections have historically been manipulated using state power. But the open threats of not granting budgets to panchayats, attempts to kill opposition candidates is a serious failure of policing and conduct of fair elections. Immediately after the election results, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Sarpanch candidate of Somwarpet, Bitla Balaraju was run over by a tractor by the winning candidate Saibaba Babai.

Balaraju and his wife Ganji Bharati are undergoing treatment in Yashoda Ho...