SANGAREDDY: Battle lines are being drawn between the ruling TRS and Opposition parties for the Dubbaka Assembly byelection as the Election Commission is expected to announce the schedule on September 29.In fact, the TRS is way ahead of the Opposition parties in campaigning to retain the seat with a majority of one lakh votes, a target set by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao himself. Leading the TRS forces is Finance Minister T Harish Rao who is on a whirlwind tour of villages in the constituency, drumming up support for the pink party.
The byelection has been necessitated by the sudden death of TRS incumbent Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy. In all probability, his widow Sujatha will get the nomination for the seat. Ramalinga Reddy won the seat in 2018 with a majority of 62,500 votes against Congress nominee Maddula Nageswara Reddy. BJP candidate Raghunandan Rao finished third in the electoral battle.The constituency is dominated by Mudirajus, SCs, Gouds and Golla Kurmas. The constituency has 146 villages in seven mandals.
This time too, BJP has nominated Raghunandan Rao who is hoping that the tide may turn in his favour this time as, in this Assembly segment, he finished second when he contested for Parliament election in 2019.
The Congress is likely to finalise the candidature of Siddipet DCC president T Narasareddy though Dr D Sravan Kumar and PCC secretary K Venaktanarasa Reddy are also in the race.
As far as campaigning is concerned, Harish Rao is taking the constituency by storm. He is implementing his Siddipet strategy where he had been cornering all the votes in his favour, leaving nothing for the Opposition parties. This he could do by making the village panchayats pass resolutions to vote for him.
He is trying to rouse sentiments against the BJP by taking up issues of discrimination by the Centre in releasing GST dues and recounting the pro-farmer policies of the State government like Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima.
BJP’s Raghunandan Rao is hopeful that the farmers would switch loyalty to him as they were angry with the TRS government for paying more to the Mallannasagar project oustees in Siddipet and Gajwel and less for them in Dubbaka. He is frequently raking up the issue to turn the voters against the TRS.
The Congress is banking on the anti-incumbency factor working against the incumbent MLA’s family. Narsareddy, who is likely to be fielded, happens to be an outsider for the constituency and no one knows how voters would react to his candidature.
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