Hyderabad: The MLC poll debacle in the Hyderabad-Ranga Reddy-Mahbubnagar Graduate constituency has set off alarm bells in the TRS government.
What has shocked the party leadership is that the voting pattern remained the same as what was witnessed during the Lok Sabha polls in April 2014, when voters favoured the BJP-TD combine in the GHMC area over other parties.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, has been making public statements for the last three-four months that all those living in Hyderabad are “Telanganites” and the TRS government will not “discriminate” against Seemandhra people or any others living in the city. But it has failed to win over Seemandhra voters, who constitute a major chunk of the electorate.
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The demolition drive taken up by the TRS government on the Gurukul Trust lands soon after coming to power in July last year, where many Seemandhra people reside, continues to create doubts and fears about the TRS among those voters.
Employees and students, who rallied behind the TRS during the statehood agitation and played a key role in the party’s victory in Assembly elections in 2014, also voted against it in the MLC polls.
The CM reviewed the voting pattern with Cabinet ministers on Thursday and asked them to re-devise plans and strategies to win over urban voters, especially Seemandhra people living in the GHMC area besides adopting a more friendly approach towards students and employees.
Ministers Mohd Mahmood Ali, Nayani Narasimha Reddy, T. Padma Rao Goud and Talasani Srinivas Yadav are learnt to have suggested various options to the Chief Minister to win over city voters ahead of the crucial GHMC elections, which are expected by October or November this year.
They want the Chief Minister to take up an extensive tour of colo-nies and localities dominated by Seemandhra people and take up development activities on a war footing. The ministers also urged the CM to expedite the process to issue job notifications through the Telangana Public Service Commission, since students are upset at the failure of the government to release a single notification even more than nine months after coming to power. They said young voters constitute a major chunk in GHMC limits and cannot be ignored.
The TRS government recently hiked the basic pay of employees by 43 per cent, but it failed to give desired results with the delay in the payment of enhanced salary.
