Telangana Rashtra Samithi men told to work for big win for the bypolls

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, has asked TRS leaders not to take a win in the Medak Lok Sabha byelections for granted. On Monday, Mr Rao met senior party leaders, including Dr K. Kesava Rao, ministers T. Harish Rao, Etela Rajender, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and other senior party leaders to finalise the candidate for the seat but could not arrive at a consensus.

The Chief Minister will hold another round of meetings on Tuesday and finalise the party nominee for the polls. TNGOs president Devi Prasad, realtor B. Praveen Reddy, Soni Travels owner Prabhakar Reddy, MLC Bhoopal Reddy and Medak TRS president Sathyanarayana are among the ticket aspirants.

The seat fell vacant following the resignation of Mr Rao who had contested from both Medak Lok Sabha and the Gajwel Assembly constituency in the general elections, but had retained the latter.

Sources said that the Chief Minister is keen to ensure a victory in the by-polls with the same huge majority that he had won.

“We have left the decision to the Chief Minister. Though there were deliberations on the issues, no decision has been taken today,” Dr Kesava Rao, MP and secretary general of the TRS, told Deccan Chronicle. Asking party leaders to put in all their efforts to ensure a big win, the Chief Minister posted a posse of ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs including Mr Harish Rao, Mr Rama Rao, Mr Srinivas Reddy, Mr Rajender, Mr Patil, Mr Vinod Kumar, Dr Rajaiah, Mr Jogura-manna, Deputy Speaker Ms Padma Devender Reddy, Mr Karne Prabhakar and others to oversee the elections.

The Congress and the BJP, supported by Telugu Desam Party, are taking the by-polls seriously and will leave nothing to chance to win the seat.