KCR outsmarts BJP in MLC polls, TRS hopes for encore in Nagarjunasagar bypoll

Hyderabad: Buoyed by the victory of both his candidates in the graduate MLC polls, despite the steep odds, TRS chief K. Chandrashekar Rao has shifted his focus to the upcoming Nagarjunasagar bypoll on April 17. Party sources said that Mr Chandrashekar Rao will lead the party’s election and campaign strategy for the bypoll, just like in the MLC polls.

Party leaders and cadre strongly believe that the MLC poll results have boosted the party’s sagging morale and confidence, just in time for the Nagarjunasagar bypoll. Euphoric TRS leaders say that these two wins have brightened the party’s victory chances and help create a -counter-narrative that there is no anti-incumbency, as is being projected by opposition parties.

As is, Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao had already kickstarted the party’s campaign for the Nagarjunasagar bypoll by addressing a public meeting at Halia on February 10, in which Mr Rao showered sops worth several hundreds of crores of rupees for local development.

It is noteworthy that after the Assembly elections held in December 2018, Mr Rao had entrusted election management responsibilities to his son and party working president K.T. Rama Rao. Mr Chandrashekar Rao did not even campaign for the party in the Dubbak bypoll, whereas in the GHMC elections, he addressed a solitary public meeting on the last day of campaign.

Though the TRS party had achieved great results under Mr Rama Rao, it suffered setbacks in the Dubbak Assembly bypoll and the GHMC elections in 2020-end at the hands of BJP. This gave scope for the BJP to project itself as the principal opposition in Telangana and the sole force with a capacity to dethrone the TRS in the next Assembly polls.

Amidst this phase of gloom, the MLC poll challenge came as an opportunity for the TRS supremo to directly spring into action and try to deal a crushing blow to the BJP narrative. Mr Chandrashekar Rao monitored all election-related strategies, from enrolment of graduate voters to booth management.

For the first time, he even embarked on micro-level election management, once the focus shifted to booth-level and even individual-level, as the party reached out to every single voter, which the party believes really worked wonders. In the MLC polls, TRS could wrest the BJP seat besides reducing it to fourth place in another seat, sending a message that BJP was not really an alternative to the TRS.

Rao now wants to extend this strategy to the Nagarjunasagar bypoll by deputing ministers, party MLA, MLCs and MPs as election in charge, who will camp in the constituency till elections end.

Since the Yadav community is numerically strong here, Mr Rao has already announced sops for them in the recent Budget, including a return to the distribution of sheep program. He has decided to field a candidate from the Yadav community to take on Congress heavyweight K. Jana Reddy.

Similarly, Mr Rao is expected to announce a new PRC for state employees and pensioners in the Assembly in a day or two in the ongoing budget session. He will also announce a recruitment drive to fill over 50,000 jobs in various government departments.

The party hopes to garner support from employees and students with these moves and is counting on that making a crucial difference to the bypoll.