HYDERABAD: Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is personally monitoring the election strategy for Huzurabad Assembly constituency which is likely to go to by-poll in the next few months.
While internal surveys are being conducted to identify a candidate with good image and winning prospects to be fielded against former minister Eatala Rajender of BJP, the ruling TRS has planned to appoint one in-charge leader for every 50 voters in the constituency.
Sources did not rule out the possibility of a Dalit candidate being finalised by the TRS boss as voters from schedule caste community, particularly Madigas, are likely to play a crucial role.
There are over 45,000 voters from the Scheduled Caste Community. Of those, over 38,000 are Madigas and the remaining are Malas. Given the CM’s thrust for successful implementation of the Dalit empowerment scheme—which offers a financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh per family with an initial budget of Rs 1,200 crore being earmarked—a senior leader in TRS said the names of Dalit leaders are also under serious consideration.
However, CM KCR will take the final decision based on survey and intelligence reports. Political analysts said it is a do-or-die battle for TRS president and CM KCR as he cannot afford to lose the by-poll after dropping Eatala from the cabinet on charges of land grabbing.
Likewise, it is a do-or-die contest for even Eatala as winning the by-poll is crucial for him to prove that he has his own following and locus standi in political arena of Telangana, and that his previous victories in elections were not because of TRS and KCR factors alone.
While Eatala’s campaigning has been going in full swing and he will soon launch his pada yatra in the Assembly segment, Telangana Congress’ new president A Revanth Reddy has been given the task of coming out with a bypoll strategy, finalising the list of contenders with winning prospects and other details of the Huzurabad constituency to the newly-appointed election management committee led by former deputy chief minister Damodar Rajanarasimha.
