Poll fever yet to subside, at least in TRS
As the election process was completed for Huzurabad Assembly constituency where former Minister Eatala Rajender was re-elected trouncing his Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) rival, political parties are now exploring options to corner the ruling party on the other aspects, including administration-related ones.
But this does not appear to be the case with the TRS as the schedule for the election to six vacancies under the MLAs quota has been released immediately after the Huzurabad bypoll. TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is understood to have been seriously examining all aspects, including caste equations, in this direction.
With the news about the exercise doing rounds in political corridors, aspirants, including those who switched loyalty from other parties, are said to be making a beeline to Pragati Bhavan, the official residence of the Chief Minister, in spite of knowing about the astute thinking of the Chief Minister known for weighing all options for taking a final decision.
Divergent views on transfer of vote
Three major political parties which contested the recent by-election to Huzurabad constituency, which was retained by Eatala Rajender even after switching over from the ruling TRS to BJP, have viewed their performance in different ways.
During a talk-show on the day of counting of votes (Nov.2), former Member of Legislative Assembly of BJP N.V.S.S. Prabhakar observed that the defection of Padi Kaushik Reddy from Congress to TRS has not gone down well with one community in erstwhile Karimnagar district, particularly in Huzurabad constituency, as politics in the district always has been a fight between two particular communities.
As a result, Congress votes did not transfer to TRS as expected and 80% of vote of one community went to BJP.
However, another political commentator felt transfer of vote of a community had taken place and that’s why the margin of BJP victory was limited to 24,000 votes!
Cash seizures and
double standards
There were several instances when senior police officials held press conferences and issue lengthy press releases even for recovering three tolas of gold, but surprisingly no press conference was held when over ₹12 lakh of seizure was done in Begumpet during a high-profile party where gambling was organised. Interestingly, the cash seizure was nearly double of what was seized by Cyberabad police recently from a villa at Narsingi which became a sensational issue.
The silence of several key officials in North Zone (Secunderabad) and the Commissioner’s Task Force has only strengthened the speculation about the presence of key politicians and bureaucrats in the poker party.
However, Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar categorically denied the presence of any politicians and directed this correspondent to speak to his subordinates in the North Zone for information, but it ended in vain.
(M. Rajeev, B. Chandrashekhar and Abhinay Deshpande)
