HYDERABAD: The big guns have fallen silent as the high-pitched campaign in Dubbaka came to a close at 6 pm on Sunday ahead of the byelection on November 3. The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) wants to retain the Assembly seat at any cost to perpetuate the feel-good factor till the next Assembly elections in 2023.
A slugfest had raged between the pink party and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), even though the Congress is also in the fray, before silence settled over the constituency as its people braced for polling day. The TRS had tried to bear down on the BJP all the time, giving an impression that the saffron party is its main rival and not the Congress.
It has fielded S Sujata, the widow of incumbent Ramalingareddy, while the BJP deployed M Raghunandan Rao, who has been fighting all elections from Dubbaka unsuccessfully. The Congress has chosen Ch Srinivasa Reddy, who left the TRS after the party denied him a ticket.
Though campaigning for the seat was low key initially, it gathered speed as days went by, with the BJP going for the TRS with all guns blazing, forcing the pink panthers to retaliate with equal fire-power. Even Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had slammed the party for what he called a campaign of misinformation that the Centre was bearing the lion’s share of funding required for the Telangana government’s Asara pension scheme. He dared the party to prove it and even offered to quit office, if it does.
As the byelection date drew closer, campaigning had reached a feverish pitch. The TRS targeted the BJP more than the Congress, probably as a reaction to the vituperative attack by the saffron party on it. All along, it was BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar and TRS troubleshooter Finance Minister T Harish Rao who were in the ring, fighting like gladiators. Mutual recrimination was the hallmark of the campaigning. TRS working president KT Rama Rao had also chipped in now and then, exposing the BJP’s hollow claims.
As the days went by, the use of money to influence voters had added a sharp edge to the campaigning. The police unearthed about `18 lakh cash at the residence of Raghunandan Rao’s relative, which the saffron party alleged was planted by the police at the behest of the TRS.
The pink party sought to expose the “nefarious” methods to which the BJP could stoop to in its attempt to woo the voters. The politics playing out in Dubbaka turned red-hot on Sunday when the Hyderabad police seized more than `1 crore cash from Raghunandan Rao’s brother-in-law while he was transporting it to Dubbaka, which gave more ammo to the TRS to attack the BJP.
This apart, a BJP activist attempted self-immolation in front of the party office in Hyderabad, alleging that Bandi had been roughed up, the sight of which he could not bear. The flames were quickly doused and the man was sent to hospital. But the BJP, according to TRS leaders, wants to exploit the incident in its favour by organising protests on Monday.
To ensure TRS’ victory in the bypoll, Harish had spared no effort in rallying the people behind him. As he is known for his troubleshooting skills, KCR had deployed him and also because some mandals in Dubbaka fall in his home constituency of Siddipet. Accordingly, Harish toured the constituency extensively, focussing on the TRS government’s welfare and development programmes and, at the same time, tangling with the BJP in this battle of wits.
On the other hand, the Congress campaign was spearheaded by TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, while party state in-charge Manickam Tagore took the by-election as a very serious issue. The party had campaigned vigorously, with Uttam targeting KCR, explaining how the Chief Minister failed to keep his promises.
There are 23 candidates in the fray and 1.98 lakh voters in Dubbaka. As many as 315 polling stations have been set up across the constituency, of which 89 have been recognised as sensitive.
Cut-throat campaigning
All along, it was BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar and TRS troubleshooter Harish Rao who were in the ring, fighting like gladiators