Palair Election Campaign Ends, By-Poll On May 16

A blitzkrieg of accusations and counter-accusations between the ruling TRS and the Opposition Congress - Telugu Desam Party combine came to a halt in the Khammam district on Saturday with the campaigning for the Palair by-election coming to an end.

The election will be held on May 16, and the counting followed by the result-announcement will be on May 19.

While the TRS fielded Roads and Buildings Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao as its candidate, the Congress fielded Sucharitha Reddy, the widow of the previous MLA Ramreddy Venkat Reddy who passed away while in office and whose demise necessitated the by-election. The TDP did not field a candidate in following with the norm when a sitting MLA expires.

An interesting situation that has cropped up in the Palair by-election is that the Telugu Desam Party which whose raison d'etre was opposing the Congress partnered with the latter. The reason is that neither the Congress nor the TDP can take on the might of the ruling TRS in Telangana any more - the TRS has been on a winning spree in each and every election held after the formation of Telangana. And so the unlikely visual of Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy, Working President Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and TDP Telangana President Revanth Reddy campaigning together for the Congress candidate. And this became a weapon for the TRS, which accused the two arch-rivals of abject shamelessness in coming together despite their radically opposite ideologies, just to win an election.

The TRS fired on all cylinders, alleging that the previous governments had completely deserted Khammam and other districts, completing none of the irrigation projects meant for those districts during their regimes. The entire TRS top brass including KTR, Harish Rao, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Jagadish Reddy, Mahender Reddy, E Dayakar Rao and other top leaders were roped in to campaign for the by-election, and turned it into a veritable war zone. The Congress, too, did the same, lining up all its top local leaders including Uttam Kumar Reddy, Jana Reddy, Mallu and others, persuading the people to vote for their candidate. And the Parties indulged in unabashed mud-slinging.

As of now, it appears like the TRS will clinch the Palair Assembly seat in the by-election.