TRS gameplan fails to secure Huzurabad bypoll

HYDERABAD: The 'poll strategies' adopted by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) to retain the Assembly seat in Huzurabad bypoll failed miserably.

Being the ruling party, the TRS wielded power to its advantage and launched welfare schemes and development programmes in Huzurabad by spending thousands of crores of rupees within a span of five months from May to October with an eye on bypoll.

The Rs 2,000 crore Dalit Bandhu scheme, Rs 2,000 crore for other development programmes, luring top leaders and cadre from the BJP and the Congress into TRS fold, distancing the entire leader and cadre base from Rajendar, camping of half a dozen ministers and dozens of MLAs, MLCs, MPs and senior leaders in Huzurabad for five months etc — everything failed to secure victory for the TRS in Huzurabad bypoll.

TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has moved heaven and earth to win the bypoll as he viewed this electoral battle as a war between himself and Rajendar more than that of the TRS and the BJP, who challenged his political might.

He wanted to teach a fitting lesson to Rajendar by defeating him in the bypoll and send a message loud and clear to his political rivals and also voices of dissent in the TRS that any leader, no matter how big they are, cannot survive politically, if they cross the party chief's line.

The Chief Minister’s first strategy was choosing May 2 to crack down on Rajendar. He chose that date as polling for Nagarjunasagar bypoll was held on April 17 and for municipal polls on April 30 which the TRS won with a good majority. With this, all elections in Telangana from village-level to Delhi-level were over and the TRS was in a politically strong situation.

He took away health minister Rajendar’s portfolio on May 2 on charges of land grabbing and sacked him from his Cabinet on May 3 and brought pressure on him to quit the TRS and the Assembly seat to force bypoll in Huzurabad.

But Rajendar took more than one month time to quit the TRS and the Assembly, doing so on June 12 and joining the BJP on June 14.

Chandrashekar Rao deputed ministers T. Harish Rao, Gangula Kamalakar and Koppula Eshwar to Huzurabad who distanced from Rajendar, the TRS leaders and cadres in Huzurabad who were sailing with him since 2014.

They later lured Congress leader Padi Kaushik Reddy, who lost to Rajendar in 2018 Assembly polls but polled over 61,000 votes. He was nominated as MLC under Governor's quota within 10 days of joining the TRS in August but the approval is still pending with the Governor.

The CM later took BJP leader E. Peddi Reddy from Huzurabad into the TRS. He made party's local leader Vakulabharanam Krishna Mohan chairman of the BC Commission to lure BCs and to attract Dalits he made Banda Srinivas the SC Corporation chairman.

Chandrashekar Rao’s other strategy was to launch Dalit Bandhu scheme and select poll-bound Huzurabad as pilot project to implement the scheme at a cost of Rs 2,000 crore. Each Dalit family was credited Rs 10 lakh their bank accounts just before polling and the entire 20,000 Dalit families were covered under the scheme.

Chandrashekar Rao himself launched the scheme in Shalapally in Huzurabad and distributed cheques to Dalits in August. This too failed to work as the BJP polled more votes than the TRS in Shalapally.

Later, Chandrashekar Rao's strategy was to instigate voters against the BJP by campaigning against the rise in domestic cylinder prices and fuel prices under the BJP government at the Centre. Minister Harish Rao took up aggressive campaigning displaying cylinder on his campaign vehicle asking voters to do 'namaskar' to cylinder before casting their votes and punish the BJP for spiralling prices. This too failed to give desired results to the TRS.

Then Chandrashekar Rao came up with one more strategy to portray Rajendar as 'inefficient' who failed to develop Huzurabad despite being elected six times as MLA and functioning as minister in the TRS government for seven years. This too backfired as it drew criticism that in the TRS there are no powers to ministers and MLAs to secure funds from the government for development.