“The people of Huzurabad Assembly constituency demonstrated steely resolve to save democratic values in the face of unprecedented intimidation tactics, flagrant misuse of official machinery and money power by the TRS regime,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Eatala Rajender, who won the bitterly fought bye-election to the Huzurabad Assembly seat, said.
Mr. Rajender has alleged that the bypoll outcome was the defeat of “arrogance” of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and the decisive rejection of the TRS dispensation’s “vendetta politics”.
Addressing his maiden press conference in Huzurabad town on Wednesday in less than 24 hours after winning the closely fought bypoll, Mr. Rajender said all sections of people, including youth, women and farmers of Huzurabad constituency, foiled the “conspiracies” allegedly hatched by the TRS leaders to win the bypoll by “hook or by crook”.
"Hordes of TRS leaders camped in Huzurabad for several weeks and resorted to all kinds of unethical practices by distributing hundreds of crores of rupees and doling out liquor, freebies and other inducements of unprecedented scale with a single-point agenda of defeating me in the bypoll," he charged.
Training his guns on the TRS leadership, he alleged that the ruling party leaders intimidated voters by issuing veiled threats to stop pensions and Rs 10 lakh financial assistance under the “Dalit Bandhu” scheme.
“But enlightened people of Huzurabad displayed remarkable grit and thwarted their (TRS leaders) attempts by upholding “Dharma” and “self-esteem” of Telangana people in the just concluded Huzurabad bypoll.” Mr. Rajender remarked, adding that they (voters) heralded “Deepavali” in advance, a day ahead of the festival of lights.
Referring to his seventh consecutive victory as MLA, he said, “I will remain ever indebted to the people of Huzurabad Assembly constituency and serve them with renewed commitment.”
Thanking the BJP national and State leaders for assiduously working for his victory, the former minister said, “The BJP national leaders welcomed me into the party when the TRS leadership backstabbed and expelled me over five months ago.”
Responding to a query, Mr. Rajender said he would extensively tour the constituencies of ministers and other TRS MLAs to exert pressure on the State government to implement the promises the ruling party made during the hustings.
Former Peddapalli MP and BJP leader G. Vivek Venkataswamy and others were present at the press conference.
