TRS certain on 6-figure win in Dubbak

The Assembly segment which was represented by Ramalinga Reddy in 2014 and 2018 has been the ruling party's bastion

Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which has set a target of one lakh vote margin of victory in the Dubbak by-election necessitated by the death of Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy, is confident of achieving the elusive six-figure victory mark in the triangular fight. The election is slated for November 3 and the results will be declared on November 11.

While TRS has nominated Solipeta Sujatha, wife of Ramalinga Reddy, Congress is fielding Cheruku Srinivas Reddy, a turncoat from TRS and son of late Cheruku Mutyam Reddy, a four-time legislator who last represented the constituency in 2009, while BJP has nominated M Raghunandan Rao for the third time. Raghunandan Rao has always been in the position when he contested the 2014 and 2018 elections, and this time around, he has already run into rough weather facing allegations of sexual misconduct with a woman.

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The Assembly segment which was represented by Ramalinga Reddy in 2014 and again in 2018 has been a bastion of the ruling party. Ramalinga Reddy lost the 2009 election to Mutyam Reddy of Congress by a narrow margin. Mutyam Reddy, a senior politician polled 52,989 votes (37.18 per cent) and Ramalinga Reddy polled 50,349 votes (35.32 per cent) . However, Ramalinga Reddy, a journalist and separate Telangana activist turned the tide in 2014 and secured 82,234 votes accounting for 53.37 per cent of the 1,54,083 votes polled. The sitting MLA Mutyam Reddy lost the election managing to garner only 28.75 per cent of votes. Raghunandan Rao finished a poor third and could not even touch the double digit (9.82 per cent).

TRS continued with its dominance in Dubbak, even during the early elections of 2018. Ramalinga Reddy won again by improving his earlier performance by achieving 89,299 votes that amounted to 54.36 per cent of 1,64,281 votes polled. Solipeta thus set a majority of 62,500, raising hopes that the Solipeta family can reach the new target of one lakh votes majority in the ensuing by-election. Chief Minister and TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao has set a target of one lakh vote majority and entrusted the work to his man Friday, and Finance Minister K Harish Rao.

With the deep rooted relation that the Solipeta family has with the voters of the constituency, Ramalinga Reddy’s wife is expected to ride on the sympathy wave. She is banking on the work done by her late husband. Harish Rao has already started campaigning for the party candidate and consolidating the vote bank by encouraging villages to resolve that they will vote for TRS. Dubbak segment consists of seven mandals and as per the estimates of 2011 census, 97.8 per cent is rural and 2.2 per cent is urban population.

The segment has a considerable number of BCs, particularly engaged in the handloom sector and SCs and STs. Reddys dominate in numbers in the forward caste. The ruling party is heavily banking on the plethora of welfare and developmental schemes that the government has been implementing in the constituency including the two bedroom houses, KCR Kits for women, Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima, Kalyana Lakshmi, Asara pensions, Kaleshwaram water and procurement of agricultural produce by the government from the doorsteps of the farmers.

On the other hand Congress which initially toyed with the idea of Siddipet DCC president R Narsareddy finally declared Cheruku Srinivas Reddy as its candidate. TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy is camping in Dubbak along with other senior leaders and is asking voters to elect its candidate Srinivas Reddy considering the work done by his father Muthyam Reddy. He has been trying to draw comparison between the funds allocated and spent on Dubbak and Siddipet segment represented by Harish Rao in the past six years. By describing Dubbak by-election as a pre-final, the national party may run the risk of further damaging its already sagging image in the State.

On the other hand, BJP is banking on Raghunandan Rao who has improved his vote percentage from 9.82 per cent in 2014 to 13.75 in 2018. A native of Medak district, Raghunandan Rao, however, can be hardly expected to make any impact this time around too given his part performance and his tarnished image.

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