HYDERABAD: The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leadership's stance on the crucial Munugode Assembly bypoll scheduled for November 3
differs significantly from previous byelections.
No special funds, schemes, or projects were announced for the development of the Munugode Assembly constituency. This is in stark contrast to the policy it followed in previous byelections in Huzurnagar in October 2019, Dubbak in November 2020, Nagarjunasagar in April 2021, and Huzurabad in October 2021.
In all these byelections, TRS president and Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao showered sops for the development of these constituencies while addressing the election meetings. The CM sanctioned residential schools, colleges, hospitals, and community halls for various castes, in addition to allocating crores of rupees of funds to each municipality and lakhs of rupees to each gram panchayat.
However, in the case of Munugode bypoll, although the CM addressed the election meeting on August 20, he did not announce any funds or schemes. In his speech, he simply attacked the BJP and left with the assurance that he will address one another public meeting in the constituency soon.
There has been a strong demand from Munugode locals for establishing government junior and degree colleges, hospitals, bus stands, and community halls, but the CM has yet to respond. This, however, did not materialise even after two months.
The CM is now expected to address a public meeting in Chandur on October 30 or 31, ahead of the November 3 election. Since the election code is already in force, the CM cannot announce any new schemes or funds.
In TRS circles, there is a heated debate about why the CM did not shower sops on Munugode. According to TRS circles, this was done out of fear that the strategy of announcing sops would backfire in Huzurabad bypoll, where the TRS government sanctioned funds worth thousands of crores and launched the Dalit Bandhu scheme, but credit went to BJP's Etala Rajender, who campaigned aggressively that it was all because of his resignation and forcing bypoll.
In Huzurabad, Rs 2,000 crore was sanctioned for Dalit Bandhu alone, and another Rs 600 crore was sanctioned for various development works in the constituency.
TRS leadership fears that BJP's Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy will claim credit for Munugode development, which is why it has refrained from showering sops on Munugode. Rajgopal Reddy has been aggressively campaigning from the beginning, claiming that he resigned as MLA solely to bring about a bypoll because the TRS government only sanctions funds, schemes, and projects if elections are held.
