Three months into the formation of Telangana, the regional sentiment is still strong enough to help the cause of TRS in the by-election to the Medak Parliamentary constituency, on Saturday.
The party was comfortably placed though it took several precautions like posting MLAs as campaign in-charges for mandals and Ministers for the seven Assembly segments each to ensure its victory. Meanwhile, the Congress and the BJP-TDP alliance, tried to cash in on the three month ‘misrule’ of TRS but voters were in no mood to be swayed as the success of the Telangana struggle was still fresh in their minds.
With just a day left for the campaign to close, the three parties intensified efforts to reach out to masses on Wednesday when Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao addressed a huge rally at Narsapur and senior Congress leaders held roadside meetings at Siddipet. Union Ministers of BJP will campaign for party candidate T. Jayaprakash Reddy at Gajwel on Thursday.
The TRS has fielded a transport firm owner, Kotha Prabhakar Reddy, and the Congress put up a former Minister, V. Sunita Laxma Reddy, who is expected to woo women voters. The Congress also labelled the BJP candidate a ‘turncoat’ as he was with the former party till the other day.
On the other hand, the TRS aimed at exposing the BJP led NDA government, giving in to Telugu Desam that was opposed to a separate Telangana while the BJP is banking on the “Jan Dhan” programme, which took deep roots in villages.
TRS MLA and former Minister Jupally Krishna Rao, who was on a door-to-door campaign in Chegunta mandal headquarters village, was heard asking a group of women in a narrow lane whether they wanted small time benefit as pension or a permanent house worth over Rs. 3 lakh as promised in the manifesto. He was responding to their complaint that they did not get pensions. He told them that they would get a pension of Rs. 2.40 lakh in 20 years at the rate of Rs. 1,000 a month but the house would be their fortune.
All India Congress Committee secretary Ramachandra Khuntia, Rajya Sabha member V. Hanumantha Rao and former Ministers T. Jeevan Reddy and D. Sridhar Babu appealed to people in Siddipet to vote for Congress as a thanksgiving to its president Sonia Gandhi for conceding a separate Telangana.
