The BJP and the TRS are set to face each other again in the forthcoming by-elections to Parkal Assembly constituency with the TRS announcing the candidature of Muluguri Bikshapathi on Wednesday.
The BJP too is likely to name an orthopaedic surgeon, Vijaya Chandra Reddy as its candidate in a day or two. A meeting of the senior BJP leaders is scheduled for Thursday at Hanamkonda to finalise the candidature.
Senior TRS leader Naini Narasimha Reddy, who headed a party committee to select the candidate, told mediapersons that Bikshpathi's choice was unanimous. All sections of party assured their unstinted support to him, he added.
Mr. Bikshapathi, who lost the 2009 elections by 12,000 votes to Konda Surekha, has been re-nominated by the party. He is a former vice-chairman of Warangal zilla parishad and was sarpanch of Parkal for two terms.
Meanwhile, lashing out at the TRS, BJP national secretary K Lakshman told the media that his party never had an electoral alliance with the TRS in the past and would put up its candidate.
He said the movement for achieving a separate State of Telangana was different from electoral politics. “In the movement, we are sharing the platform even with CPI (ML) New Democracy which is at the opposite end of the political spectrum.
People have voted for us in Palamur (Mahabubnagar) because they understand that BJP is for achieving Telangana,” Mr. Lakshman added.
The party has been looking at how to marshal the support of other sections in the Parkal by-elections, party sources said and in this context Dr. Vijay Chander as the convenor of the JAC is a front runner for the BJP ticket, sources added.
The State government had recently accepted the resignation of Dr. Vijaya Chandra Reddy, a professor of orthopaedics at the Kakatiya Medical College in Warangal.
