“We have to celebrate today. At last, we got our freedom after TRS came to power,” said a man waiting outside the counting station here on Tuesday.
Like several others, he also waited eagerly for the by-election results and once it was out, he was happy beyond bounds. “This is a gift to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on his birthday, which is on Wednesday,” he said. But all the credit for the victory goes to Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao, a ‘one-man army’, who literally demolished the opposition parties in the bypoll. It was Mr. Rao who planned and executed the strategy to wrest the seat from the Congress. Every other leader followed his advice and the result was a huge margin for the TRS candidate. All this began in September, a few days after the sudden demise of late legislator P. Kishta Reddy in August, 2015. From then onwards, Mr .Harish Rao visited the constituency frequently and tried to identify the problems. Once the problems were identified, he roped in several other Ministers such as Etala Rajender, P. Mahender Reddy, Lakshma Reddy and Deputy Speaker M. Padma Devender Reddy. Besides, he ensured that funds sanctioned during the tenure of Mr. Kishta Reddy were used properly. His first focus was on the constituency headquarters where road network was developed. The process continued with sanctioning of a government hospital and a market yard, that surprised everyone. While doing so, the TRS leaders reportedly tried to rope in leaders from other parties, but finally zeroed in on Mr. Bhupal Reddy. Mr. Rao visited almost all the villages. For the first time, the localites witnessed a Minister coming to their doorstep and it changed their view on TRS.
Minister Harish Rao visited the constituency frequently and tried to address the problems by roping in other leaders