Hyderabad: TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is all set to sound poll bugle in Huzurabad in the third week of this month.
According to party sources, Chandrashekar Rao will address a public meeting to brace the party for the bypoll, which is expected to take place sometime in September. This would be the CM’s first visit to Huzurabad after the ouster of senior party leader and health minister Etala Rajendar from his Cabinet in May first week which subsequently led to Rajendar quitting the TRS as well as his Assembly seat in June first week and joining the BJP in June second week.
After Rajendar’s ouster, Chandrashekar Rao immediately undertook damage-control exercise in Huzurabad by deploying ministers and party MLAs to ensure local party leaders and cadre do not sail with Rajendar but remain with the TRS.
The Chief Minister deputed minister Gangula Kamalakar and Koppula Eshwar to Huzurabad to hold negotiations with local leaders and cadres to convince them to stay in the TRS. He appointed finance minister T. Harish Rao and former MP B. Vinod Kumar, the TS Planning Commission vice-chairman, at the state level to check any departure of local leaders and cadres from the TRS. This yielded desired results as no major leader or cadre joined hands with Rajendar.
Due to political turmoil in Huzurabad after Rajendar’s exit, sources said Chandrashekar Rao felt it was the right time to visit the constituency to boost the morale of party leaders and cadre to retain the seat in the bypoll with a decent majority.
Rao was avoiding campaigning for bypolls since he became Chief Minister in 2014 as it was a cakewalk for the TRS. But after setbacks received in Dubbak bypoll and the GHMC elections in 2020-end, leading to the emergence of the BJP as a strong political force in the state, the CM said to have changed his strategy and started taking bypolls seriously.
In the Nagarjunasagar Assembly bypoll held in April this year, Rao addressed two huge public meetings before the poll notification was issued, and another meeting just two days prior to polling on April 17. This helped the TRS to trounce Congress heavyweight K. Jana Reddy in his stronghold for the second time in a row with a huge majority of over 18,000 votes. Sources said the Chief Minister wanted to adopt the same strategy in Huzurabad by addressing a public meeting before issuance of poll notification by the EC and address another meeting just before polling.
As the Huzurabad bypoll holds much political significance for the TRS than any other bypoll till date, the Chief Minister wants to win this election, come what may, and check voices of dissent, if any within the TRS once and for all.
