Hyderabad, January 29: With the bypolls for seven Assembly constituencies in Telangana region round the corner, the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) are gearing up to meet the challenge. While the Congress is harping on the “development and anti-corruption” mantra, the TRS is banking on the T-sentiment and is confident of winning all the seven seats.
While the Congress is yet to finalise its candidates, the TRS has already announced that it would nominate former MLAs who joined it from the other parties as its official candidates for the by-elections. The TDP is busy resolving its own internal bickering from time to time. But Chandrababu Naidu is now a confident man after making a tour of the Telangana region.
The Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy advised the local leaders to lure the opponents of the candidates into the Congress fold so that they could neutralise the TRS candidates. But by repeatedly announcing that the by-elections are no referendum to the Congress’ governance, the Chief Minister has apparently exposed the weakness of the ruling party. Minister DK Aruna has been drafted to look into the by-polls in the Telangana region, it is learnt.
TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao has given a green signal to Jogu Ramanna for the Adilabad Assembly seat, Gampa Goverdhan will contest from Kamareddy, while Jupally Krishna Rao from Kollapur and T Rajaiah from Station Ghanpur are almost certain to contest on behalf of the TRS.
These MLAs have recently resigned from the TDP and Congress and joined TRS.
——Agencies