KCR aim: Congress must lose depoit in Huzurabad bypoll

HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had set two targets for ministers and party leaders for the upcoming Huzurabad Assembly bypoll.

The first one is to defeat the BJP with a decent majority and second is to ensure the Congress does not retain its deposit, according to official sources in the TRS.

Sources said Rao reviewed Huzurabad bypoll issue with a few ministers and senior party leaders on Monday.

In the meeting, the Chief Minister asked them to work hard to ensure that Congress lost deposit in the very first election it would fight under the leadership of new TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy.

He felt since Huzurabad bypoll is a straight fight between the TRS and Etala Rajender (BJP), the Congress has no role in this bypoll and hence the TRS should win and the Congress should lose its deposit. The Chief Minister said that each mandal in Huzurabad Assembly constituency should be monitored by a minister and five MLAs who would be assisted by party MPs, MLCs, ZP chairpersons, ZPTCs, MPTCs, municipal chairpersons, councillors, sarpanches and ward members from village-level to district level.

Ministers T. Harish Rao, K.T. Rama Rao and Planning Commission deputy chairman B. Vinod Kumar will monitor the bypoll at state-level and coordinate with all in-charge ministers and leaders involved in the bypoll.

In the meeting, the comments of Congress MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy reportedly came up for discussion who wished new TPCC retained at least deposit in Huzurabad bypoll. Against this backdrop, the Chief Minister reportedly felt that it would be easier to make the Congress lose its deposit if proper strategies were worked out and executed effectively in the run up to the bypoll.