With the battle lines drawn for the Medak Lok Sabha bye-election scheduled for September 13, the ruling TRS and BJP are engaged in a war of words.
A keen contest is on the cards among TRS candidate K Prabhakar Reddy, BJP nominee T Jayaprakash Reddy and Sunita Laxma Reddy of Congress in the bypoll, necessitated by the resignation of TRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao after he became the Chief Minister of Telangana.
TRS is seeking to retain the seat as Medak is the native district of Rao, Congress is trying to salvage its prestige by winning the bye-election, while BJP-TDP combine is making efforts to wrest the seat from TRS.
Training his guns on BJP, Telangana minister T Harish Rao, nephew of Chandrasekhar Rao, alleged today that Telangana people would teach a lesson to the saffron party as the Centre tried to impose restrictions on the powers of Telangana government.
With the TRS launching an attack on the TDP-BJP combine over the last few days, BJP MLA NVSS Prabhakar hit out at the ruling party asking if it is ready for a debate on its 70-day rule.
BJP has sprung a surprise by nominating Jayaprakash Reddy, popularly known as Jagga Reddy, who was a Congress MLA between 2004 and 2009, though he was with BJP earlier.
Meanwhile, Congress is making a determined bid to win the bye-election and it has fielded senior leaders to lead the campaign.
Media reports claimed that Congress president Sonia Gandhi called up key party leaders in Medak and exhorted them to work for its success.