Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday put the by-election to Huzurabad assembly constituency on hold until the end of festival season (Dasara in October), along with 30 other assembly constituency by-elections across the country.
There are currently 31 assembly and three parliamentary constituencies that are vacant.
The by-election in Huzurabad is necessitated with the resignation of the former health minister and four-time MLA Eatala Rajender from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and his assembly membership. He later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The election is to be held before December, under six months of his resignation.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Telangana government informed the ECI that it is ready to hold the election as scheduled, stating the COVID-19 situation is not alarming.
Meanwhile, the political campaign at Huzurabad has already picked up heat with major parties–including Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress already conducting rallies and padayatras. KCR-led TRS party upped the game with the implementation of Dalit Bandhu scheme, with finance minister T Harish Rao taking responsibility of the campaign. BJP, too, launched a high-voltage campaign with party’s state president Bandi Sanjay and Eatala in the front.
Until now, only TRS announced its candidate for the by-election. Party supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao named party’s student wing president Gellu Srinivas Yadav as the candidate in early August. Eatala is most likely to contest on the BJP ticket.