Even as the TRS is pulling out all the stops to win the five poll bound Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in old undivided Khammam district, the ruling party is facing a tough challenge from the Opposition in Kothagudem and Madhira municipalities and “rebel trouble” in Yellandu municipality.
The TRS suffered a major setback in the 2018 Assembly elections in the erstwhile composite Khammam district managing to win just one of the total 10 Assembly seats.
However, the party candidates emerged triumphant from both Khammam and Mahabubabad seats in the subsequent Lok Sabha elections held in 2019.
Banking heavily on the development plank, the ruling party is spearheading a vigorous electioneering in all the five ULBs – Madhira, Wyra, Sattupalli, Kothagudem and Yellandu, slated to go for polls on January 22.
The coal mining hub of Kothagudem municipality, known as the traditional bastion of the Congress and Left parties, is witnessing a keen tussle.
The Congress-CPI-CPI (M)-TDP have entered into a strategic alliance in some of the wards in the Kothagudem municipality to put a joint fight at the hustings, sources said. The BJP is contesting the elections alone.
Lack of cohesion between the new entrants and some old-timers in the TRS in the Kothagudem town unit has become a cause of concern for the TRS contestants in quite a few wards, according to political observers.
In Yellandu, the disgruntled TRS ticket aspirants, including a few former municipal councillors, remained in the poll fray in the ULB comprising a total of 24 wards.
The party leadership is understood to have entrusted the task of winning both the Kothagudem and Yellandu ULBs to the MLAs of the coal belt region, who switched over to the TRS from the Congress last year.
Khammam MP Nama Nageswara Rao along with Kothagudem MLA Vanama Venkateswara Rao conducted a whirlwind electioneering drumming up support for the TRS candidates in Kothagudem on Friday.
According to TRS sources, Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar and former Khammam MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy are scheduled to address election rallies in Wyra and other election-bound municipalities on Saturday and Sunday.
