WARANGAL: While contesting candidates for the Warangal-Nalgonda-Khammam MLC Graduates constituency elections started their campaigning a few months ago, all parties have now upped the tempo of the campaign with the ECI releasing the schedule for the election. The ruling TRS is banking on the developmental works they have carried out in the past six years of their rule. Ministers Errabelli Dayakar Rao and Satyavathi Rathod, MLAs and MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy are touring every constituency and conducting meetings with the voters.
Party leaders also believe that a membership drive would help them garner votes. The BJP, meanwhile, claimed that the mood of the public had changed, and pointed to the Dubbaka and GHMC poll results as evidence. The party is claiming that the ruling TRS had failed to fulfil poll promises, such as providing stipend to the unemployed youth, double bedroom houses for the poor and so on.
The Congress leaders are reportedly fancying their chances despite being in the Opposition for the past two terms, as they believe they still have a strong cadre at the grassroots level. Meanwhile, there is a mixed response from the voters. Unemployed youth are among the most neglected lot after the formation of a separate Telangana State.
They allege that the ruling party has neither created jobs nor given unemployment allowance as promised in their manifesto. The State government employees, too, are unhappy with the fitment of 7.5 per cent, and retirement age not getting increased.“With so many prominent personalities contesting the election and each having their own vote bank, it might be a tough fight for the ruling party as the votes would get split,” is how an analyst summarised the situation.