After its landslide victory in the recent GHMC elections, the ruling TRS has now set its eyes on the Naryankhed Assembly by-elections in a determined to bid to record an hat-trick and thus reaffirm itself as a matchless political force in Telangana State.
The by-elections in Narayankhed scheduled on February 13, is necessitated following the demise of the Congress sitting MLA P. Kishta Reddy. While the Congress is fielding P. Sanjeeva Reddy, the son of the deceased member, the TRS has selected M. Bhupal Reddy as its candidate. The TDP-BJP combine interestingly is fielding M. Vijayapal Reddy, who is the brother of TRS nominee.
Narayankhed in Medak district is considered as Congress bastion for a long time. Thus after the demise of its sitting member, the Congress hoped that its nominee, the son of the deceased MLA, would be elected unopposed. However, the TRS which has won eight of the 10 Assembly seats in Medak district, seemed determined to demolish the little Congress hold in the district and thus entered the battleground.
As a matter of fact, the TRS even tried to win over the deceased MLA’s son Sanjeeva Reddy to cross over to its camp, but failed. Though there was in all eight candidates in the battle royal, the fight is mainly between the major three players — TRS, Congress and the TDP-BJP combine. Besides the Congress, the TDP too has considerable influence in the constituency as it had held the seat in 1994. Thus the by-poll has attracted a lot of political attention with all the three major players leaving no stone unturned to capture the seat.
The Minister for Irrigation Harish Rao, who is the nephew of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, has been entrusted with the responsibility of leading the TRS campaign. Not to let down the trust and confidence reposed by the TRS leadership in him, Harish Rao has been camping in the constituency by visiting every house in nook and corner of the area and promising the electorate to develop the constituency in all aspects.
The Congress, apart from its own state leaders have also utilized the services of AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh to woo the voters. The TDP-BJP combine also pushed into its campaign senior leaders from both the parties like Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and TDP General Secretary Nara Lokesh.
The fortnight-long campaigning which would come to a close on Thursday has witnessed bitter tongue-lashing by all the political parties against the rival parties and nominees. Chief Minister KCR also addressed a massive public meeting today wherein he highlighted the TRS government’s achievements . He also reminded the electorate the massive mandate given by the citizens in the GHMC elections to the pink party and was confident that electorate of Narayankhed too would fall in line for over all development of the constituency.
According to the present trend and mood of the electorate , the contest is likely to be mainly between the TRS and TDP-BJP combine. (NSS)
TRS Eyeing For Hat-Trick With Narayankhed By-Elections
