HYDERABAD: After a bitter campaign between TRS, BJP and Congress, residents of
Dubbak
are casting their vote in the assembly byelection today. The
election
was announced after the sudden death of the sitting TRS MLA Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy in August.
The feverish campaigning saw allegations and counter allegations after Rs 18.7 lakh cash was seized from the residence of a relative of BJP candidate M Raghunandan Rao. The cops said that they had also recovered Rs 1 crore from Rao’s brother-in-law in Hyderabad. Besides, a BJP supporter in Hyderabad had attempted self-immolation to protest the arrest of state BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar.
The tense situation led to the Election Commission deputing four observers, including an IPS officer from Tamil Nadu, to oversee the election.
In the middle of the acrimonious campaigning, Siddipet district collector P Venkat Rami Reddy was shifted to Sangareddy and Bharati Hollikeri was appointed in his place.
While TRS is in a strong position in the constituency, both the Congress and BJP have made it a keen contest by coming out all guns blazing and asking their top leaders to campaign.
TRS, which has fielded Solipeta Sujatha, wife of Ramalinga Reddy, believes it is going to be a cakewalk for it.
“It will not be just a sympathy vote for Sujatha. It will be a vote in favour of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, his welfare schemes and the functioning of the government,” a senior TRS leader said. With KCR and TRS working president KT Rama Rao staying away, the mantle fell on finance minister and Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao, who ran a no-holds-barred campaign.
In the 2018 election, TRS had won the seat with a margin of 62,500 votes. Sources said it is important for the TRS to at least hold on to this margin if not exceed it.
BJP’s Raghunandan Rao, who has suffered defeats in three previous elections, is fighting for ‘atma gouravam’ (self-respect). The election is also a litmus test for Union minister of state for home G Kishan Reddy, who campaigned for Rao in Dubbak.
Congress candidate Cheruku Srinivas Reddy, who came from the TRS, is also seeking vote in the name of his father, the late Cheruku Mutyam Reddy, who had represented the constituency in the past. His performance will test Nalgonda MP, TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy, and new AICC
Telangana in-charge Manickam Tagore. Both had vowed to upstage TRS this time.
In the 2018 poll, Congress polled 26,000 votes and the BJP 22,000 votes. The TRS had secured 89,000 votes.
Check out the latest news about Delhi Elections 2025, including key constituencies such as New Delhi, Kalkaji, Jangpura, Patparganj and Rohini, Chandni Chowk, Rajinder Nagar, Greater Kailash, Okhla, Dwarka.Sushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyde...
Read MoreSushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyderabad. He began his journalism career at the age of 20 in 1988. He is a gold medalist in journalism from the Department of Communication and Journalism, Arts College, Osmania University, Hyderabad from where he did his post-graduation from. He has been with The Times of India’s Hyderabad edition since its launch in 2000. He has also done an introductory course in film studies from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and also from the Central University of Kerala equipping himself with the knowledge of filmmaking for film criticism. He has authored four books. In his career spanning 34 years, he has worked for five newspapers and has also done television reporting. He was also a web journalist during internet’s infancy in the mid 1990s in India. He covers defence, politics, diaspora, innovation, administration, the film industry, Hyderabad city and Telangana state, and human interest stories. He is also a podcaster, blogger, does video reporting and makes documentaries.
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