The Munugode Battle: BJP resorts to cliche tricks, TRS aims high

Hyderabad: The script is exactly the same. And so are the tricks. Barely days after leaders of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi), right from KT Rama Rao to T Harish Rao and Talasani Srinivas Yadav spoke how the people of Munugode would have to be wary of a sympathy drama that the […]

Hyderabad: The script is exactly the same. And so are the tricks.

Barely days after leaders of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi), right from KT Rama Rao to T Harish Rao and Talasani Srinivas Yadav spoke how the people of Munugode would have to be wary of a sympathy drama that the Bharatiya Janata Party would enact ahead of the November 3 poll, photos of a ‘frail’ Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy undergoing a medical checkup have come out, with news also being spread that he was campaigning despite falling sick.

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The campaigning in Munugode, which so far has witnessed an intensity that could surpass the kind witnessed in Dubbak and Huzurabad, is now however moving along a stale and wornout script for the BJP. The TRS leaders had warned of cliched tricks, including promises that were repeated several times in Dubbak and Huzurabad, and also of the ‘sentimental’ approach, trying to garner sympathy votes with the candidate suffering from a disease or injury. The BJP did not disappoint, and just as M Raghunandan Rao in Dubbak and Eatala Rajender in Huzurabad enacted an injury and fever with flair, Rajgopal Reddy’s camp released the photographs of the medical checkup.

The BJP turned to its injury/illness strategy after the image bashing its candidate Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy took after news of the Rs.18,000 crore contract came out, and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) saying it was a quid pro quo deal. More skeletons kept tumbling out of the closet for the BJP, with cash transactions between senior BJP leader G Vivek Venkatswamy’s Visaka Industries and Rajgopal Reddy, including one that Reddy himself disclosed in his affidavit to the Election Commission, coming to light.

The TRS (BRS) managed to turn the tide against Rajgopal Reddy using these transactions, and has repeatedly been telling the public that the by-poll was forced upon them, and also that the by-poll was a battle between the self-esteem of the people of Munugode and the BJP candidate’s ‘greed’.

The TRS campaign, on the other hand, has been different, with focus on welfare schemes initiated by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, how Mission Bhagiratha erased the nightmare of fluorosis, how a BJP victory could mean meters on pumpsets and an end to the free power supply being given by the State government and also how developmental activities like Asia’s biggest MSME industrial park at Dandumalkapur in Munugode are already triggering a major metamorphosis in the area. The party is also fighting an election symbol risk, with the Election Commission of India mysteriously reviving a symbol that it had removed in 2011.

The TRS, facing its first election after the announcement of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, is telling the people that they were on the cusp of creating history by giving the party’s new national avatar its first victory, which could set the template for the BRS to take on the BJP’s politics of divisiveness and hate across the country.

The Congress, is also in the fray, but with TPCC president Revanth Reddy himself revealing in an open letter how the party was torn by internal bickering with some leaders ‘betraying’ the party, Palvai Sravanthi’s sole hope rests on attracting votes from women. Candidates like KA Paul are trying their best, with videos of the evangelist turned politician dancing on a street going viral.

November 6 will reveal which party will have the victory dance though.

రాజగోపాల్ రెడ్డి @krg_reddy కి జ్వరం వచ్చింది🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/t86pc1Gk9I

— Putta Vishnuvardhan Reddy (@PuttaVishnuVR) October 25, 2022

మీ అందరిది తప్పు సమాధానం…
Correct Answer – జ్వరం pic.twitter.com/ElYEnO592m

— krishanKTRS (@krishanKTRS) October 25, 2022