NIZAMABAD: The ruling BRS, which trounced the Congress in two successive Assembly elections in the erstwhile Nizamabad district, is now jittery ahead of 2023 Assembly polls.However, it is not the grand old party that the BRS is wary of; the Congress is struggling to regain its past glory while the BJP is emerging as a force to reckon with.Nevertheless, all the three main political parties are getting ready for the upcoming Assembly elections and are focusing on all the nine Assembly constituencies in erstwhile Nizamabad district.
Right from its inception, the TRS (now BRS) has been able to make a mark in Nizamabad and this trend continued after the formation of Telangana. The TRS won all the nine Assembly constituencies in 2014 elections and in 2018, it won eight while the Congress won the Yellareddy constituency. The joy of the grand old party was short-lived, its MLA J Surendar soon joined the pink party.
However, TRS lost the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency to the BJP during the 2019 General Elections.The loss sparked a war of words between the BJP and the BRS, with the pink party cadres targeting BJP MP Dharmapuri Arvind. Incidents of BRS and BJP cadres attacking each other increased on the ground level, while the war of words between Arvind and TRS candidate (now MLC) K Kavitha made regular headlines.
However, the BRS has changed tack of late, muted its attacks on the BJP and has been concentrating on development activities and explaining to the people what the State government has done in the last eight years as well as its future plans.
This has sparked talk of early elections, but the BRS leadership has made no effort to dispel the rumours. Eight of the pink party MLAs are confident that they will get the party tickets in the coming elections while Bodhan MLA Shakeel seems unhappy with leadership. Realising this, the party leadership has initiated steps to mollify him.
As for the Congress, the grand old party is getting ready to face the formidable challenge ahead.
P Sudharshan Reddy and Md Ali Shabbir are the party’s top leaders in the district and the Congress has high hopes from them. Former MLA E Anil is also preparing for the upcoming elections.Ticket aspirants are lining up for all the constituencies, except Banswada. Shabbir Ali is regularly touring the constituency, as well as Yellareddy and Jukkal Assembly constituencies.
Speaking to TNIE, Sudharshan Reddy said: “We have faith in the people. If people are with the Congress, we can raise public issues on their behalf. As a political party we will continue to fight against the anti-people policies of the government. We do not have the capacity for money-based politics.”
On its part, the BJP leadership is exuding confidence. Saffron party leaders are claiming that they have candidates for all the constituencies and would win a majority of the seats. BJP aspirants are trying to get close to the people at the village-level; some have even started padayatras in their constituencies to raise public issues. Some leaders are taking up protests on local issues, hoping to catch the eye of the party leadership.
Nizamabad MP D Arvind is hoping to contest for the Armoor Assembly constituency, while there are many aspirants for the Nizamabad Urban ticket.BJP district chief Basavapuram Laxminarasaiah said that some senior leaders will join the party in the coming few months. “This will help the BJP win several Assembly seats,” he said.Meanwhile, the AIMIM reportedly has plans to field candidates for the Nizamabad and Bodhan Assembly seats.