HYDERABAD: While the opposition Congress and the ruling TRS are fighting to win the Huzurnagar Assem-bly byelection, the BJP and the Telugu Desam have got into the fray to know their strength in the constituency.
The main contest in the bypolls is between Congress and the TRS. Huzurnagar Assembly seat is a strong bastion of the Congress. TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy won continuously from this segment thrice. TRS has not won this seat even once, but is desirous of snatching the seat from the Congress. By retaining the Huzurnagar seat, the Congress wants to demonstrate that people are against the TRS government. The ruling party wants to win from the constituency to assert that people of the state are with the TRS and it was by mere luck that the Congress won three and the BJP four Lok Sabha seats in the last elections.
However, the TD entering the fray has surprised political circles. In the last Assembly elections, the party won only two seats in TS, while it did not contest the Lok Sabha elections. More so, after the Lok Sabha elections, several TD leaders of state and district levels left their party and joined either the TRS or the BJP.
While everybody was thinking that the TD has disappeared from the political scene in TS, the party surprised everyone by fielding a candidate in the Huzurnagar byelection. By securing a good number of votes, the TD wants to demonstrate that it still has some hold in the state.
When it comes to the BJP, it has no strong local leader or cadre in the Huzurnagar assembly constituency. In the previous assembly elections, the party got only 1,500 votes.
But having bagged four Lok Sabha seats in the last elections, the BJP feels that it has improved its strength in the state. Some prominent leaders from other parties too have joined the the BJP whose leaders feel the party will be able to make a psychological impact on the people of the state.
