The noisy campaigns of the various political parties in Telangana, ahead of the upcoming MLC elections in the graduates' constituencies of Warangal-Nalgonda-Khammam and Hyderabad-Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy, finally came to an end today.
The TRS, the BJP, the Congress, the parties of the Left and several independent candidates are testing their fate in the elections - a total of 93 candidates are fighting for the Hyderabad-Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy seat whereas 71 hopefuls are in the fray for the Warangal-Nalgonda-Khammam seat.
While the BJP candidate for the Hyderabad-Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy seat, incumbent MLC N Ramchander Rao, seems intent on retaining his post, the TRS has been focused on wresting the position from him. It has even chosen to field the daughter of former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, Surabhi Vani Devi, in an attempt to mobilise support from the former PM's loyalists. The Congress' G Chinna Reddy and former MLC Dr K Nageshwar, who is contesting as an independent candidate, are among the others fighting for the seat.
The pink party's other candidate, sitting MLC of the Warangal-Nalgonda-Khammam constituency Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, seems confident that he will continue to hold the post. The Congress has fielded ST leader S Ramulu Naik for the post, with the hope that this will help it garner the support of the voters for its inclusivity and
"commitment to social justice". Going head-to-head with Rajeshwar Reddy and Ramulu Naik are the saffron party's G Premendar Reddy, TJS head M Kodandaram, Telangana Inti Party chief Cheruku Sudhakar and CPI candidate B Jayasarathi Reddy (a journalist).
The Congress, who was seen campaigning aggressively for the past few weeks, is set on staging a comeback in Telangana through these elections. The party's high command has been leaving no stone unturned to win over the graduate voters. The BJP, on the other hand, is confident that it will secure a hat-trick of commendable electoral performances in Telangana after its
victory in the Dubbaka by-election, and its huge increase in vote share in the
GHMC elections.
The campaigns brought with them the promise of sops and a flurry of allegations being passed around between the parties. Apart from the more traditional campaign speeches, all the candidates also took to social media to woo the younger graduate demographic - a key vote bank in the upcoming elections - and made promises to alleviate issues of unemployment, and those being faced by the government employees in the state. The recurring theme in the campaigns was clearly the issue of the rising unemployment in the state. Unkept election-time promises also became a major flashpoint in the debates between the various candidates.
The elections will be held on March 14 from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, and the results will be announced three days after the polling, on March 17.
According to the State Election Commission (SEC), all polling arrangements have already been made, and jumbo ballot boxes have been kept ready at the respective polling stations across the six districts. Security measures, necessary for the conduct of fair elections, are also reportedly being made.
Further, the SEC has already issued instructions to the parties and their leaders to follow the norms of the election code of conduct as well as the requisite Covid-19 safety guidelines.
Other measures to avoid any untoward incidents during the elections were also taken days ago - Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar had asked all the licensed gun holders in the capital to deposit their firearms to authorised weapons dealers last month itself, and Principal Secretary (Home) Ravi Gupta issued orders calling for the suspension of the granting of fresh arms licences. Further, the Hyderabad police stated that no bike rallies would be permitted in the capital. March 13 and 14 have also been declared dry days in the six districts.