TRS gets going for Munugode bypolls, busy finalising candidate

Hyderabad: Shortly after Munugode sitting MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy’s resignation was accepted, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi has set the ball rolling for the bye-election preparations. The party has reportedly completed the exercise to identify its candidate and an announcement in this regard is likely to be made soon after the bypoll is announced. Highly […]

Hyderabad: Shortly after Munugode sitting MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy’s resignation was accepted, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi has set the ball rolling for the bye-election preparations. The party has reportedly completed the exercise to identify its candidate and an announcement in this regard is likely to be made soon after the bypoll is announced.

Highly placed sources in the TRS informed Telangana Today that the party President and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao held numerous consultations with the party cadres in Yadadri-Bhongir district especially Munugode Assembly constituency. He is also learnt to have got multiple surveys conducted to gauge the winning prospects for the TRS in the bye-election as and when it is announced.

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“As the Munugode bypoll is expected within next four or five months and just an year away from the Assembly elections next year, the Chief Minister asked the party cadres to take it prestigiously,” a senior TRS leader said. The TRS is not willing to take any chances as losing the bye-election will send a wrong signal, especially when the Opposition parties are claiming their respective wins in the recent bye-elections as people’s mandate in their favour.

Chandrashekhar Rao, who is known to announce the party candidates way ahead of other political parties during the elections, is learnt to have already commenced the exercise in this regard. Multiple survey reports from public and the party cadre have been already placed on his table, to finalise the party candidate.

Sources said the names of the State Legislative Council chairman Gutha Sukhender Reddy, former MP Boora Narsaiah Goud, former MLC and Government Whip Karne Prabhakar, and former MLA Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy, were in circulation, as all these were actively involved in Telangana movement and were also known to be close to the party leadership.

However, the scales are learnt to be tilting in favour of Prabhakar Reddy, who represented Munugode constituency in the 2014 State Assembly and lost to sitting MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy with a margin of 22,500 votes in the 2018 Assembly polls.

The Chief Minister is learnt to be disinclined to disturb Sukhender Reddy, who assumed the post of the State Legislative Council chairman, less than a year ago. Narsaiah Goud who lost to Komatireddy Venkat Reddy in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with a slender margin of 4,880 votes, is a strong contender for the next Lok Sabha elections in 2023. Hence, the party leadership wanted him to focus on consolidating his votes and improve his winning prospects.

Survey reports were not in favour of another contender Karne Prabhakar considering the caste equations and vote bank. The party is said to be utilise his services within the party ahead of major elections and later, elevate him to suitable position.

On the other hand, Prabhakar Reddy has been associated with TRS since 2002 and was in the forefront during the Telangana agitation in Munugode. With a strong local base, he had been closely associated with the local population and played crucial role in implementation of flagship programmes like Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya to end the flurosis problem in the constituency. Despite him losing the previous elections, he had been actively involved in all the party activities as well as continued his close relations with the people. With the survey reports in his favour, the party leadership has started making moves to consolidate the votes by bringing all the leaders to work together to make the win a cakewalk.