Huzurabad bypoll: TRS shifts gears
Surges ahead with aggressive campaign even before declaration of bypoll date; CM to formally introduce party nominee on Aug 16
Hyderabad: Following the announcement of its candidate, the ruling TRS has switched gears and is surging ahead with aggressive campaign even before the declaration of the date for Huzurabad bypoll.
Chief Minister and TRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao himself will be addressing a massive public meeting in Huzurabad on August 16 where he will not only formally launch the much-awaited Telangana Dalit Bandhu scheme, but will also formally introduce TRS candidate Gellu Srinivas Yadav to the constituents of Huzurabad.
Finance Minister T Harish Rao who is leading the poll campaign, has already started addressing public meetings besides holding personal meetings with representatives of various organisations, community elders and other influential sections to consolidate TRS votes.
Ministers Koppula Eshwar and Gangula Kamalakar and several legislators and other elected representatives along with TRS social media activists are also playing key roles and have already met TRS supporters in the last couple of weeks.
Sources said the party leadership decided to reach out to the beneficiaries of various government schemes in Huzurabad Assembly constituency, seeking their support and vote for Srinivas Yadav. Of the estimated 2.3 lakh voters in the constituency, nearly One lakh people have directly or indirectly benefited from government schemes over the last seven years. A list of these beneficiaries has already been circulated to the party cadre who will visit every house and explain the importance of electing the TRS candidate to ensure speedy development of the constituency.
Election material including letter by the TRS president explaining the government schemes and development programmes being extended to Huzurabad constituency, has already reached the party cadres which will be distributed among the voters. “The Chief Minister himself will explain about the government measures in the past seven years, at the public meeting on August 16. We are confident that it will have a massive impact on the voters. We are trying to visit each voter at least once before the poll date is announced and again before the campaign ends,” a TRS general secretary told Telangana Today.
Opposition left behind
Following the scorching pace set by the TRS, the Opposition parties have been forced to get into the poll mode. Though BJP candidate Eatala Rajender enjoyed the advantage of being an early bird, he dropped out of his much-touted ‘padayatra’ in the constituency, citing health issues. His family members who were campaigning on his behalf aggressively, have also slowed down. Except for press conferences from his farm house on the outskirts of Hyderabad a couple of times, Rajender has not been active and it is still not clear as to when he will resume his campaign. TRS leaders believe that Rajender has lost hopes of winning and has taken the backseat.
As things stand now, BJP State president Sanjay Kumar and other leaders would have to work really hard to put up a semblance of fight in the by-poll. Though he planned to embark on a 750 km padayatra on August 9, he postponed it to August 24 citing the Parliament session.
Not surprisingly, the Congress seems to be clueless about the moves it should make. After party general secretary and candidate from previous election Padi Kaushik Reddy joining the TRS, the Congress is now scouting for a suitable candidate. In any case, it is unlikely that the party will have any impact in Huzurabad given its performance in recent elections.
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