HYDERABAD: Tando Allahyar – a newly-created district – is one of the richest areas of the country in terms of agriculture and the local body elections will be held here in the first phase on Aug 18.

Cash crops like sugarcane, wheat, onion and cotton are cultivated in a vast area. Besides, orchards are spread over hundreds of acres of land and are owned by political and influential families.

The district is known also for its progressive growers. Sindh Abadgar Board chief Abdul Majeed Nizamani said that after the Faiz Ganj taluka in Khairpur, Tando Allahyar had the most fertile land in Sindh. “No other area produces such a huge quantity of sugarcane as Tando Allahyar. Around 50 to 60 million maunds sugarcane is produced annually,” said Mr Nizamani. “The area is also known for various varieties of mangoes,” he added.

Despite such a huge agricultural output, the area is still facing shortage of water. Such complaints were made by growers to Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim at a public meeting held at the Shalimar Bagh.

One National Assembly seat, won by the People’s Party Parliamentarians, and two provincial assembly seats, one bagged by the PPP and the other by independent candidate, form part of this constituency.

Having 19 union councils and a population close to 500,000, it was the second biggest taluka in the undivided Hyderabad district. Now it has three talukas – Tando Allahyar (eight union councils), Chambar (five union councils) and Jhando Khan Mari (six union councils). Its Nasarpur Union Council was included in the Matiari district and a new union council, Shaikh Moosa, was created in it.

Union council 3 and 4 have mix rural-urban population whereas union council 1 of Chambar and union council 1 and 2 of the Tando Allahyar city are urban based. The remaining union councils are rural based.

There are 247 seats of six categories having 38 seats of nazims/naib nazims, 76 seats of Muslim general (men), 38 seats each of Muslim general (women), peasant/worker (men) and peasant/worker (women) and 19 seats of minority.

There are 238,828 registered voters in the district, 126,766 men and 112,062 women (Muslim). The number of non-Muslim voters is 53,238, including 24,067 women.

Tando Allahyar was a stronghold of the PPP till Dr Irfan Gul Magsi caused the first dent in the 2002 general election, winning PS-52 by beating PPP candidate Imdad Pitafi, thanks to differences among local PPP leaders. Dr Magsi had earlier returned to the district council as the nazim of the Chambar Union Council-I by defeating PPP-backed Awam Dost Panel candidate in the 2001 local body polls.

How much safe Tando Allahyar has remained for the PPP can be gauged from the fact that when PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto faced threat to her seat in Larkana in the 97 election against Ghinwa Bhutto, the widow of her brother Mir Murtaza Bhutto, she preferred to contest from NA-171 (Tando Allahyar-I), which is now NA-223, and won against Dr Irfan Magsi’s father, Allah Bux Magsi.

Here, the stage is all set for an interesting electoral bout between the ADP and the Azad Magsi Ittehad. Two candidates for the Bukera Sharif Union Council and union council-VI have already returned unopposed. It is in fact the PPP vs. coalition parties, with Magsis the main stakeholders.

The PPP is faced with some problems due to differences between party leaders Abdul Sattar Bachani and MPA Syed Ali Nawaz Shah Rizvi over nomination of candidates. The two leaders have allowed their supporters to file nomination forms separately.

The party also suffered a setback as its old supporters and influential people like Khair Mohammad Khokhar, former nazim of Bukera Sharif, Dr Zulfikar Yousfani, Abdul Karim Dars and Lakhano Kori announced to support the ruling coalition alliance. Mr Khokhar’s son, Aftab Khokhar, has been elected unopposed from Bukera Sharif. The Magsis have made seat adjustment with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in union council 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the Tando Allahyar city.