Hyderabad: TRS is in an upbeat mood as its surveys indicate a thumping win for the ruling party in the Narayankhed Assembly bypoll too. Apart from normal feedbacks, the party leaders also hired experts to conduct a survey which indicated a huge win for the party.
The Congress and the Telugu Desam-BJP combine, which received severe drubbings in the GHMC polls, haven't given up hope though.
“We will win the seat with a thumping majority that Narayankhed did not see in the past. The public response to TRS' welfare and developmental programmes is immense. We will implement every promise made to the people of this backward region,” irrigation minister T. Harish Rao, told DC.
He said the voters of Narayankhed are seeking a change since the constituency witnessed faction politics and little development in the past.
“Both the Congress and the TD will lose their deposits. GHMC elections have proven that people are with the TRS. KTR has done a good job,” Mr Harish Rao remarked.
Earlier, he told the media that there was no “No 2” or “No 3” in the party. “We have only a No 1 and that is KCR. We are not in the numbers game and will work for development,” he said.
"I don't see any silver lining for the Congress in Narayankhed. The TRS government is going all out to win votes with a spate of works taken up in the region, including installation of new transformers, digging of bore wells in parched areas, ensuring quality power supply etc," a senior Congress leader said.
However, TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy still has some hope. He urged the Election Commission to hold the election with ballot papers instead of EVMs as something was "fishy" in the GHMC results.
A local TRS leader Bedakhane Hanumanthu asserted the party would win by 30,000 plus votes. "Its a pro-TRS wave," he said.
In the recent GHMC elections, the results were more favourable to the TRS than even the exit poll predictions. In 2014 Assembly elections, Congress candidate Patlolla Kista Reddy polled 62,347 votes while his TRS rival Mahareddy Bhupal Reddy got 47,601 votes.
Kista Reddy won by a margin of 14, 746 votes. In the 13 elections since 1957, the highest majority a candidate won against his rival was in the range of 10,000 to 16,000 votes, according to TRS leaders
