HYDERABAD: The Nagarjuna Sagar byelection may be six months away, but the BJP has already begun campaigning in the constituency. The party's previous candidate in the segment , Kankanala Niveditha Reddy, who had secured less than 2 per cent voteshare in the 2018 Assembly elections is now aiming for a favourable bypoll result.
The Dubbaka bypoll and GHMC elections have inspired the saffron party leadership to initiate election preparations well in advance. It appears that the BJP bigwigs want the victory momentum maintained.
The political scenario in Nagarjuna Sagar segment is slightly different from that of other constituencies in the State. Nagarjuna Sagar is one of the few Congress strongholds. Even though former Minister Kunduru Jana Reddy of the grand old party lost the seat in the previous elections, he managed to secure 42.04 per cent voteshare.
Therefore, in the upcoming byelection, one can expect a triangular fight among the TRS, Congress and BJP. Determined to win the bypoll, Niveditha Reddy, who is the wife of BJP Nalgonda district president K Sridhar Reddy, has kickstarted a padayatra, which would cover every household in the constituency. It is speculated that either Niveditha Reddy or Sridhar Reddy would be contesting for the party.
"We have ample amount of time before the election, and we want to fully utilise it. My aim is to visit each voter at least four to five times before the election. In the last two elections, there were around 50,000 votes against Congress veteran Jana Reddy. This means that citizens are rejecting him. The BJP is an alternative for him as well as the ruling party," Niveditha Reddy told The New Indian Express.
The BJP has created a Facebook page for every mandal in Nagarjuna Sagar constituency and has reactivated booth-level WhatsApp groups for online campaigning.