Warangal: The BRS would focus its attention on the Mulugu constituencies where the Congress party is plagued by groupism and internal dissensions. But, Mulugu MLA D Anasuya (Seethakka) is keen on countering the BRS strategies for the constituency.
Of the 12 assembly segments in the erstwhile Warangal district, the Congress won two assembly segments -- Mulugu and Bhupalpally -- in the last polls. Later, Venkataramana Reddy who won on the Congress ticket shifted his loyalty to the ruling BRS. Meanwhile, Seethakka, who won the Mulugu constituency twice in 2014 and 2018, emerged as the strongest Congress leader in the Mulugu district.
This time, the BRS leadership announced Bade Nagajyothi as its MLA candidate for Mulugu. Ministers Errabelli Dayakar and Satyavathi Rathod are strategizing on ways to grab the Mulugu seat.
Seethakka, who was in the Telugu Desam, had joined the Congress along with Revanth Reddy. From then on, the Congress in Mulugu constituency was divided into two groups. The ‘Turmeric’ Congress group joined hands with the TDP leaders who joined the Congress along with Seethakka, while the ‘Old’ Congress group sided with the leaders who were with the party for decades.
Seethakka had quit the TD and joined the Congress as she felt she was not getting proper recognition from party chief Chandrababu Naidu. Several seasoned leaders of the Congress thereafter remained silent by not attending the party programmes.
Having learned that the Congress party cadre was divided into two groups, the BRS party started ‘operation Akarsh’ in the Mulugu constituency to draw in the disappointed Congress leaders of the ‘Old’ Congress group by offering them baits and gifts via holding secret meetings.
Also, the BRS started playing a mind game, trying to blame the Congress MLA Seethakka, alleging that she was against non-scheduled tribe people and showing partiality towards the people of her own community, the scheduled tribe.
They averred that it was because of Seethakka that the high court had issued orders to make all the 23 villages in the newly formed Mangapet Mandal “reserved” under the ST category. This, they argued, meant an injustice to the people of other communities in the agency areas.
Meanwhile, Seethakka, in order to retain her MLA seat, started a counter-attack on the BRS party, alleging that “BRS party leaders entering the villages like locust insects are attacking innocent people and robbing them in the name of commissions to sanction benefits of various welfare schemes to them.”
She was apparently trying to gain sympathy from the voters by passing on the message to the people that, “for the past 20 years, she was serving the people in the constituency irrespective of whether she was elected or defeated in the elections.”
The MLA appealed to the Congress cadre and the people not to fall prey to the “false” promises of the BRS party leaders as they would “cheat” them later.
