HYDERABAD: The high-voltage campaign for the Dubbak Assembly by-elections, scheduled for November 3, will conclude Sunday evening. Counting of votes would be taken up on November 10.
The campaign was marked by aggressive blitzkrieg by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while Congress too left no stone unturned to make it a triangular contest.
Finance minister T. Harish Rao, who is known as a byelection specialist in the TRS, handled the campaign of party nominee Solipeta Sujatha. The death of her husband, party legislator S. Ramalinga Reddy, death necessitated the byelection.
A galaxy of leaders from BJP and the Congress went full throttle in their respective campaigns. The BJP, which lost its deposit in the previous election here, remained aggressive throughout the campaigning, which witnessed rallies by Union minister of state G. Kishan Reddy, party’s OBC Morcha Dr K Laxman, state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, national vice-president D.K. Aruna, sitting and former MPs of the party.
The contest between BJP and TRS heated up with the seizure of cash by Siddipet police from the house of a close relative of BJP candidate M. Raghunandan Rao.
AICC in-charge of Telangana Affairs Manickam Tagore launched the campaign for Congress candidate Cheruku Srinivas Reddy and it was followed by TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, working president A. Revanth Reddy, Ponnam Prabhakar, and Kusum Kumar, among several other former MPs and MLAs.
The Congress has taken it as prestigious as it hopes that a win here could propel their chances in the 2023 elections.
Marking the penultimate day, senior leaders of BJP and Congress vigorously campaigned in villages and towns. Most of the leaders will remain in the segment till Sunday evening.
Harish Rao, addressing an election rally at Chegunta, said that the BJP which came to power in 1999 with the promise of “one vote for two states” had failed to keep their promise even after completing their full term in 2004.
Reminding the BJP’s “one vote two states” resolution during BJP Kakinada meeting, Harish Rao said that the TRS leaders had several times tendered their resignations to force the Union government to create Telangana state.
He pointed out that neither Kishan Reddy nor any other BJP leader had tendered their resignation for the cause. He alleged that Kishan Reddy had backed Andhra leaders when the TRS leaders resigned from their posts.
He said that the Congress was not even offering any contest in Dubbak. He appealed to the constituency people to elect Sujatha in order to continue all the development works in the constituency.
Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the TRS government not only neglected Dubbak, but had also ignored Ramalinga Reddy who represented the constituency for four terms.
Addressing Congress leaders and cadre online on Saturday, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Congress campaign had been successful so far. He claimed that the party had received overwhelming response from the voters and its candidate Srinivas Reddy would register a comfortable victory.
He alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and ministers Harish Rao and K.T. Rama Rao had focussed on their constituencies of Gajwel, Siddipet and Sircilla. They never looked at the adjoining Dubbak and did nothing for its development.
Aruna found fault with the Chief Minister for misleading the people by stating that the Centre is forcing installation of electricity meters to agriculture pump sets.
