HYDERABAD: With the Election Commission of India (ECI) announcing the schedule, the battle lines are drawn for the Munugode byelection, which will prove to be a litmus test for the three political parties — the BJP, TRS and Congress.
The bypoll, which was necessitated by the resignation of incumbent Congress MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, will be held on November 3. The ECI will issue the notification on October 7 and the Model Code of Conduct will be in force in Nalgonda district with immediate effect.
Rajagopal Reddy, who quit the grand old party on August 8 to don saffron robes, will now be contesting on a BJP ticket. The BJP with an objective to expand its base in Telangana lured Rajagopal Reddy and asked him to contest in the bypoll. It remains to be seen if it will succeed in its attempts.
On the other hand, with its supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao set to make a foray into national politics with “BJP-mukt Bharat” as the main agenda, the TRS is taking the bypoll as a matter of prestige as it wants to send the message across the State that the pink party’s base is intact and it can retain the power after the next elections.
The Congress, which alleged that the BJP and the TRS were hand in glove, has to prove that the expansion of the BJP is not at the expense of the grand old party. While BJP will be fielding Rajagopal Reddy, the Congress has already announced Palvai Sravanthi Reddy as their candidate. Both the parties have also started campaigning vigorously.
TRS may announce Munugode candidate on Dasara
The ruling TRS is likely to finalise the candidature of Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy and announce the name on the day of Dasara. However, it remains to be seen if the pink party too will field a Reddy candidate or pick a BC leader. TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will soon address a public meeting in Munugode.
The ruling party has already divided Munugode into 86 units and appointed Ministers, MLAs and MLCs as in-charges for these units. During a review meeting with leaders on Monday, Rao has directed the in-charges to hit the ground running from October 6 onwards.
Ministers KT Rama Rao, T Harish Rao, G Jagadish Reddy and others will campaign for the party candidate. It means the ruling party is focussing all its energies on Munugode to ensure the defeat of the BJP candidate. However, the BJP leaders are confident that their candidate would win with a huge margin.
The BJP leaders are of the view that the anti-incumbency factor works in favour of the saffron party. The Congress is banking on Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra to impress the voters.
FIFTH BYPOLL UNDER SECOND TERM OF TRS
This will be the fifth bypoll in the present term of the TRS government. In the previous four bypolls, the TRS wrested Huzurnagar seat from the Congress and retained Nagarjuna Sagar seat. However, it lost its two seats — Dubbaka and Huzurabad, to BJP. Munugode will be the last bypoll before the next general elections. For the record, TRS candidate Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy won the Munugode seat in the 2014 Assembly polls but lost to Rajagopal Reddy in 201
the schedule
Oct 7: Issue of notification
Oct 14: Last date for filing of nominations
Oct 15: Scrutiny of nominations
Oct 17: Last date for withdrawal of nominations
Nov 3: Polling
Nov 6: Counting of votes
