HYDERABAD: Who will become the victim of the falling knife - “cash for MLAs drama” - in the Munugode byelection? The TRS slams the BJP for trying to poach its MLAs while the saffron party describes the entire drama as a stage-managed slapstick comedy where the dramatis personae were controlled by Pragathi Bhavan. The Congress accuses both the BJP and the TRS of dreaming up the “elaborate charade” to blunt the impact of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra which is currently in progress in Telangana and also to edge the grand old party out of the reckoning.
The BJP and the TRS are going for each other’s jugular after the Cyberabad police arrested the three accused in the cash for MLAs case K Nanda Kumar, Simha Yajulu and Ramchandra Bharathi for trying to persuade four TRS MLAs to switch horses midstream.
The additional grist that was brought to the mill was the so called audio clip revealing the names of Union Minister Amit Shah and BJP organising secretary BL Santosh only sent the mercury in the political barometer shooting up.
Joining the issue, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia lashed out at the BJP for its unethical and undemocratic methods to trap TRS MLAs in Hyderabad which might lend credence to the TRS arugment that the BJP had tried to reach out to its MLAs.The Aziznagar Farmhouse Operation seems to have upset the BJP national leaders and its direct fallout is the cancellation of the public meeting it had originally scheduled on October 31 where party president JP Nadda was to speak.
After the Huzurabad byelection where the ruling TRS received a mortal blow in the hands of the BJP, the pink party is taking this Munugode byelection very seriously to exact revenge on the saffron party.
Meanwhile, the TRS is making arrangements for a mega public meeting to be addressed by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at Chandur on Sunday. TRS leaders are planning to mobilise at least one lakh people for the public meeting.
Cong hopes for silent revolution
The Congress is pinning its hopes on what it is sensing a silent revolution sweeping the constituency in its favour. As five-time MLA and Rajya Sabha member, late Palvai Govardhan Reddy’s daughter Sravanthi is in the fray, the party believes, voters who are his admirers would plump for her.
This apart, the Congress has been campaigning that the voters should give Sravanthi one chance as no woman has ever been elected from Munuogde. Besides the three main parties, the BSP is also in the fray. BSP State president RS Praveen Kumar is trying to rally the BCs and Dalits who are estimated to be about 15,000 in the constituency to support the party nominee Shankara Chary.