Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Graduate MLC polls in Telangana on Sunday

By Telangana Today

Published: Updated On - 05:37 PM, Sun - 14 March 21

Women shifting polling equipment at the LB Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday. — Photo: Surya Sridhar Polling for both the MLC seats will be held from 8 am to 4 pm while counting of votes is scheduled to take place on March 17

Hyderabad: The heat and dust of hectic electioneering have settled down, and Sunday will see graduates in two MLC constituencies of Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad and Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda queuing up to cast their votes to decide the winners.

The interest this MLC election has generated is perhaps unprecedented, with the opposition, particularly the BJP, trying to prove a point that they still have political relevance in the State. But their campaign strategy was mostly confined to vilification of ruling party leaders, mudslinging at its worst, that could boomerang on them. The TRS, on the other hand, not only stole a march over the opposition by getting off the block first, but it also focused on explaining the government’s achievements on various fronts and some plans for the future too.

The opposition all along harped on the TRS government alleged failure in fulfilling its poll promise of generating employment and filling vacancies in government departments. Their strategy came to a nought when TRS working president KT Rama Rao, on more than one occasion, released official data pertaining to recruitments carried out in the past six-and-a-half years, when 1.33 lakh vacancies in government departments were filled.

From the TRS camp, Palla Rajeshwar Reddy is seeking a second term from the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda graduates constituency while Surabhi Vani Devi, daughter of former Prime Minister late PV Narasimha Rao, will be testing her electoral waters from the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad graduates constituency. Vani Devi’s candidature announced by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao was seen as a brilliant political move that unsettled the opposition. Both candidates are educationists and have good credentials.

Polling for both the MLC seats will be held from 8 am to 4 pm while counting of votes is scheduled to take place on March 17. Incidentally, this is the first time that such a large number of candidates are testing their fate from these two MLC seats since the State formation. While 93 candidates are contesting from the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad constituency, 71 candidates are in the fray from the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda constituency. All the major political parties, including TRS, Congress and BJP, are taking these elections as a prestige issue.

TRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao was personally involved in chalking out poll strategies and constantly kept in touch with party leaders on the latest trends. He discussed poll strategies with party leaders and deployed Ministers as in-charges to campaign for TRS candidates. Ministers T Harish Rao, V Prashanth Reddy and Gangula Kamalakar were assigned the task of leading the TRS cadre in the MLC elections to the Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar-Hyderabad constituency, while Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Puvvada Ajay Kumar and Jagadish Reddy led the charge for Rajeshwar Rao in the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda constituency.

Former Minister K Chinna Reddy from the Congress, sitting MLC N Ramchander Rao from the BJP, and former MLC Prof K Nageshwar are the other candidates from the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad constituency. Ramulu Naik from the Congress, G Premender Reddy from the BJP, TJS president professor M Kodandaram and a few other independent candidates are contesting from the Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam constituency.

Rajeshwar Reddy remained way ahead of his political opponents in campaign right from the word go. Even before the election notification was issued, he started reaching out to his constituents seeking their support. He toured all the three districts extensively completing three to four rounds of campaign. The candidature of most of the opposition contestants was finalised only after the election notification was released, leaving them little time to campaign.