Ending speculation over its candidate for Huzurabad bypoll Congress has opted for its student leader Balmuri Venkat Narsing Rao.
His name was cleared by the party high command taking into consideration his services to the party and also the fact that he is a local candidate. Mr. Venkat hails from Tharalpalli village in Kalwasrirampur mandal of Peddapalli district.
Mr. Venkat who is currently the president of Congress student wing National Students Union of India (NSUI) in Telangana will take on TRS candidate Gellu Srinivas Yadav, who is the president of TRS students wing and also a local candidate. Etela Rajender, who quit TRS to join BJP is likely to be the BJP candidate.
Though his selection has surprised some, party leaders believe that he was a safe bet after former minister Konda Surekha was bit reluctant to contest if she was not given some concessions she sought for the next elections as she would be taking a political risk by contesting at Huzurabad.
Mr. Venkat has been quite active taking up students issues in the last few years and he had led several agitations seeking relief to students from exams during the COVID-19 lockdown and also cancellation of exams to lessen burden on students. Though not a political heavyweight party wants to send across a message that student leaders will be recognised for their hard work. Party wants to counter the political message that if TRS can field a student leader it too can.
Congress, however, never had big hopes on the bypoll given the interesting circumstances in which it was being conducted after Mr. Rajender abruptly was dismissed from the Cabinet. It is being seen more as a fight between Mr. Rajender and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao as individuals more than the political parties.
Several candidates were reluctant to fight in the bypoll realising that the contest was between TRS and the BJP. Party didn’t trust a few others who were not big names and that the ruling TRS will influence them in the last moment.
Huzurabad has not been a Congress constituency for over two decades now with Eatala Rajender winning it four times as TRS candidate and its earlier version (Kamalapur) was considered the bastion of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). However, Congress secured good number of votes in 2018 when Kaushik Reddy was its candidate and he has now moved to the TRS.
