TRS stays confident as campaigning for municipal polls in Telangana ends today
HYDERABAD: Curtains will come down on the high voltage campaign for municipal elections in the State at 5 pm on Monday. However, for Karimnagar Municipal Corporation, the campaigning will continue till 5 pm on January 22 because the schedule for this civic body was announced two days late.
The main contestants - TRS, Congress, BJP and the AIMIM - tore into the Telangana hinterland with a no-holds barred campaign in support of their candidates which at times degenerated into personal vilification. As far as TRS is concerned, it is quite confident of winning a lion’s share of the urban local bodies (ULBs).
"We are confident of winning a majority. People will vote for development," party working president KT Rama Rao has stated repeatedly. Though KTR campaigned mainly in Sircilla, his home constituency, he has constantly maintained a watch on what is happening elsewhere.
Using the campaign vehicles specially designed for TRS, candidates and ministers hit the roads in the towns, seeking the support of voters. The TRS candidates in 77 wards and three AIMIM contestants in various ULBs were declared elected unanimously after the expiry of time for withdrawal of the nominations.
TRS working president KT Rama Rao held a series of meetings with party leaders at Telangana Bhavan. For one such meeting, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao too turned up and explained to the MLAs and ministers how important elections to the local bodies are for the ruling party.
Rama Rao was so confident of winning a majority of the ULBs that he had no hesitation to say that the results would be a referendum on him as Municipal Administration Minister. At the ground level, all ministers launched a publicity blitzkrieg lambasting the BJP and Congress at every given opportunity.
In constituencies where there are no ministers, MLAs led the charge and in constituencies where there are no MLAs, constituency in-charges are shouldering the responsibility of steering the party to victory. The BJP, which wants to prove that it is a force to reckon with, after its humiliating defeat in Huzurnagar Assembly by-election, has left nothing to chance during its campaigning tours.
BJP State unit president K Laxman has taken it as a challenge to make sure that his party would make a dent in the TRS fortress that would be noticeable to all. He has been touring all over Telangana taking KCR and his party to task, sometimes whipping up passions on CAA and NRC, and sometimes telling people that if any development took place in towns, it was with the funds released by the Centre.
Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy also hit the road in Telangana addressing whistle-stop meetings and explaining how the BJP government at the Centre was showing interest on Telangana to develop its urban infrastructure. The BJP MPs - Soyam Bapu Rao, D Arvind and B Sanjay Kumar campaigned in their respective Lok Sabha constituencies whipping up passions to consolidate the Hindu vote bank in their party’s favour.
The Congress too did not lag behind. TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, working presidents A Revanth Reddy and Ponnam Prabhakar toured extensively in their areas and elicited the support of the voters for the Congress nominees in the wards.
The AIMIM, though it is a TRS ally, does not have any poll pact with it and its candidates are contesting on their own. Party president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi visited Muslim dominated areas and sought support from them.
He raised the issue of the CAA and NRC and appealed to them to read the BJP’s game plan, while saying that the only way to defeat the BJP was to support the AIMIM.