Eatala wins Huzurabad by-election with a majority of 24,068 votes

Hyderabad: In a nerve-racking fight, BJP candidate Eatala Rajender wrested Huzurabad Assembly seat by winning the by-election with a majority of 24,068 votes. TRS candidate Gellu Srinivas Yadav, who is a political novice with no experience of contesting any election previously, gave a tough time to Rajender, a seasoned politician who represented the Huzurabad Assembly […]

Hyderabad: In a nerve-racking fight, BJP candidate Eatala Rajender wrested Huzurabad Assembly seat by winning the by-election with a majority of 24,068 votes. TRS candidate Gellu Srinivas Yadav, who is a political novice with no experience of contesting any election previously, gave a tough time to Rajender, a seasoned politician who represented the Huzurabad Assembly constituency since 2004.

In the counting held at SRR College in Karimnagar for a total 22 rounds of counting, Rajender polled 1,06,780 votes against TRS candidate Gellu Srinivas Yadav who secured 82,712 votes. He also got 455 votes out of total 729 postal ballots polled. Congress polled just 3,012 votes and lost the deposit.

The by-election was necessitated after Eatala Rajender quit TRS following his removal from the State Cabinet over land grab allegations. Both TRS and BJP launched a high-octane campaign and left no stone unturned to win the election. During the polling held on October 30, the voters too turned up in large numbers with a record turnout of 86.66 per cent of total 2.37 lakh voters.

The BJP pulled every possible trick and used all weapons at its command to defeat the TRS which had maintained a strong hold over the Huzurabad constituency (previously Kamalapur constituency) since its formation in 2001. Though the TRS government announced a scheme for Dalit empowerment in its budget and launched the Dalit Bandhu way before the by-election was announced, the BJP lodged a complaint and ensured that the Election Commission of India (ECI) suspended the ongoing scheme till November 4 against the established norms.

Later, the BJP leaders spread a false propaganda that the State government had stalled the scheme and that it was threatening the Dalit families that they would not receive the Rs 10 lakh grant unless the TRS candidate is elected. Another rumour was also made viral stating that the TRS would stall Rythu Bandhu after the bypoll.

Further, TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao was forced to cancel his lone public meeting scheduled to be held on the last day of poll campaign on October 27. While the BJP held public meetings attended by Union Ministers G Kishan Reddy, Smriti Irani and others without any restrictions within the constituency, the party had objected to the Chief Minister’s public meeting planned outside Huzurabad and lodged a complaint with the ECI seeking necessary action citing Covid-19 pandemic.

The ruling party alleged that the restrictions imposed by the ECI prevented Chandrashekhar Rao from addressing election meetings in the constituency. In fact, the Chief Minister had even slammed the Election Commission for crossing its limits. He also found fault with the poll panel for stopping implementation of Dalit Bandhu in the constituency. During the campaign, the TRS leaders targeted the opposition parties for what they called stalling the scheme.

Interestingly, the Congress made no serious efforts to even retain its traditional vote bank during the entire poll campaign, amidst allegations of colluding with BJP to defeat TRS. The Congress had finalised its student leader Balmuru Venkata Narsing Rao, after the polling notification was issued and majority of senior leaders remained away from most part of the campaigning.

Meanwhile, Rajender’s vote share came down when compared to his 43,719 votes majority in 2018 Assembly elections. Over the last decade, Rajender’s majority against his immediate opponent has been declining in every election. The bypoll majority is also one of the lowest majorities to the BJP leader in his political career after 2004 and 2009 where he got a majority of 19,614 votes and 15,035 respectively.

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