After its landslide victory in the recent GHMC elections, the TRS seeks a win in Narayankhed to reaffirm itself as a matchless political force in Telangana.
After its landslide victory in the recent GHMC elections, the ruling TRS has now set its eyes upon the by-election for the Narayankhed Assembly constituency seat in a determined bid to record an hat-trick and reaffirm itself as a matchless political force in Telangana.
The by-election is scheduled for February 13, and was 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 the TRS nominee.
Narayankhed in Medak district has been a 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 the Medak district, decided to demolish the remaining Congress hold in the district, and entered the battleground.
The TRS originally tried to get the deceased MLA's son Sanjeeva Reddy to cross over to its camp, but failed, making for an interesting competition, given Reddy would be a sentimental favorite, and is the Congress candidate. 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. (Though there are eight candidates in the fray, the fight is mainly between the TRS, the Congress and the TDP-BJP combine.)
Telangana Minister for Irrigation Harish Rao, who is the nephew of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, has been entrusted with the responsibility of leading the TRS campaign. Harish Rao has since been camping in the constituency and visiting every house in every nook and corner of the area, and promising to develop the constituency in all aspects.
The Congress, apart from those of its own State leaders, has 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 will come to a close on Thursday has witnessed bitter attacks by all the political parties against the rival Parties and their nominees. Chief Minister KCR also addressed a massive public meeting today wherein he highlighted the TRS government's achievements. He also reminded the electorate of the massive mandate given by the citizens in the GHMC elections to the pink party, and expressed confidence that the electorate of Narayankhed, too, would follow for the overall development of the constituency.
According to the present trend and the mood of the electorate, the contest is likely to be mainly between the TRS and the TDP-BJP combine.