Hyderabad: A day after the Election Commission of India announced that by-election to Nagarjuna Sagar assembly constituency will be held on April 17, the opposition BJP on Wednesday exuded confidence of wresting the seat from ruling TRS.
BJP’s Telanagana unit chief Bandi Sanjay said his party will take the by-poll as a challenge and win the seat.
Claiming that people of Telangana looking at BJP as a political alternative to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), he said the party will show its strength in the by-poll.
Sanjay said the outcome of Dubbaka by-election and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections show that people are with the BJP.
The MP said the party would soon announce the name of the candidate for Nagarjuna Sagar by-poll.
According the schedule announced by the Election Commission, the poll notification will be issued on March 23 and the nomination process will begin on the same day. The last day for nominations is March 30 and counting of votes will be held on May 2.
The by-election was necessitated due to the demise of Nomula Narsimhaiah, a sitting legislator of TRS in December last year.
TRS is likely to field Narsimhaiah’s son Nomula Bharat. The name of Tera Chinnapa Reddy, a member of Legislative Council is also reported to be under consideration as the ruling party will be looking tread cautiously in view of the experiment in Dubbak.
TRS lost to BJP in Dubbak despite the ruling party fielding S. Sujatha, widow of S. Ramalinga Reddy, whose death had caused the by-election.
BJP’s M. Raghunandan Rao had defeated Sujatha by 1,079 votes in the by-poll held in November last year. An upbeat BJP also performed well in GHMC polls held in December, by winning 48 seats in 150-member municipal body.
Nagarjuna Sagar is likely to witness three-cornered contest. The Congress party has already decided to field senior leader and former minister K. Jana Reddy.
Jana Reddy won this seven times in the past. In 2018, he lost to Narsimhaiah by a margin of just 7,700 votes.