The unique and interesting elections are going to witness with the clash of egos, money and tricks. Many senior party leaders will run an aggressive campaign in Telangana’s Manugodu byelection. And observe the wants and ambitions of informed voters. This constituency has this unusual combination with other attractions.
As the three major political parties — the TRS, BJP, and Congress — compete for votes in the November 3 by-election to the Assembly constituency, Manugodu constituency in Telangana is like trench warfare.
Not fewer than 178 senior and middle-level leaders from the three parties are vying for space in the seven mandals of the constituency and the only municipality of Choutuppal with the goal of reaching out to every single voter within the purview of each of the 290 or so polling stations in the constituency. Although it is still early in the campaign and their paths are certain to cross at some point before the campaign is over, the leaders of the three parties have for the most part avoided one another. With 86 of its MLAs and MLCs, including ministers, the ruling TRS has the highest concentration of party leaders—a phenomena that has never before been observed, even by TRS norms.
The list of TRS leaders — on whose shoulders TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has placed the responsibility of the victory for the party — alone runs 15 pages.
Earlier, Chandrashekar Rao had reportedly said that he will take charge of Lenkalpally village in Marriguda mandal. On paper, however, the responsibility has fallen on to party MLC T. Ravinder Rao.
Incidentally, the TRS has saturated the constituency — where the battle is between Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy of the BJP, Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy of the TRS, and Palvai Sravanthi of the Congress — with its leaders, and resources, has the additional advantage, at least a psychological one, of having Munugode surrounded by constituencies represented by its legislators.
The Congress, currently seen as the underdog in the contest, and smarting over the desertion of Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy from its fold to join the BJP, has sent in 68 of its leaders. Interestingly, the BJP, claiming to be the primary contender for the Munugode seat, has officially sent in a mere 24 of its leaders as in-charges of each of the seven mandals, and the Choutuppal municipality.
In addition to these leaders are unlisted booth committee in-charges of the three different parties, who, in large numbers, are to ensure that each voter gets connected with a leader or leaders deployed to campaign in their mandal or village, in addition to senior leaders who undertake campaigning during the day.
The job of each of the incharge, co-incharge and assistant is to ensure that the voters they reach out to will vote for their party. And their job, according to leaders from all three parties, has been complicated by the fact that all of them, irrespective of party affiliation, are after the same set of people who may have been contacted by their rivals, or would be once they have left.
Self-respect goes for a toss
Although political parties claim that the byelection is for Munugode’s atma gouravam (self-respect), it is apparent that the public is not amused by this snide rhetoric. The most frequent statement heard is “They gave X money to join their party, if you pay Y amount we will join your party,” according to several leaders who have visited the constituency. Everyone is aware that K Raj Gopal Reddy is a contractor, and it is widely believed that this bypoll was conducted for his benefit. People are speaking literally and without even flinching when it comes to financial matters, a source claimed. “It’s not like people are ignorant of realities.”
With TRS Ministers, legislators and parliamentarians flocking to Munugode, it looks like targets are set to ensure majority of defections happen in the party. In Ellagiri village of Chautuppal mandal, 50 families belonging to BJP and Congress joined the TRS party. Many people joined TRS in the presence of MP Malothu Kavitha, attracted by the development in Nampally mandal. Agriculture Market Committee Chairman, sarpanches, MPTC members joined the TRS in the presence of Manchireddy Kishan Reddy.
On Wednesday, leaders and activists of BJP and Congress parties from the Marrigudem mandal in Munugodu joined the TRS party in the presence of Harish Rao in Hyderabad. On Monday, ZPTC chief Karnati Venkatesham of Chunduru Mandal joined TRS in the presence of Jagadish Reddy, while Komatireddy was filing nomination papers.
In Ellagiri village of Choutuppal mandal, 50 families belonging to BJP and Congress joined the pink party. Many people joined TRS in the presence of MP Malothu Kavitha, attracted by the development in Nampally mandal Mushtipalli. In all, 30 BJP workers from Thangadapally village joined TRS on Tuesday in the presence of MLA Methuku Anand.
TPCC president Revanth Reddy said that defections from the party were happening faster in Mugugode than the movement of scrips in the share market. Ironically, he said that only with Congress it was possible to eradicate the politics of defection.
Parties vie to woo newly-weds
However, it seems these days that getting married in Munugodu is a lucrative endeavour! The newlywed couples are in high demand as TRS and BJP representatives compete to provide them with gifts like kitchenware, clothing, and cash in hopes of winning their support in the byelection. Some of the couples are folks who recently got married and registered to vote. As voters, they are awaiting ECI permission.
The local party activists of the pink and saffron parties have so far identified about 2,000 newlywed couples in the constituency. Most of them are residents of Choutuppal, Samsthan Narayanpur, Gattuppal and Munugodu mandals.
The TRS leaders are collecting details of all those who are waiting for Kalyana Laxmi or Shadi Mubarak scheme amount of Rs 1.16 lakh from the state government and are assuring them that they would help in the early release of money under these schemes. The government has not released the money for the past six months.
Pending payment of the money under these schemes, the TRS leaders are presenting ‘marriage gifts’, which include furniture and house appliances like small fridges, mixers, fans, etc, it is learnt.
The BJP leaders are visiting the houses of the newlyweds and are said to be handing over gifts like silver ornaments to the brides and wrist watches and clothes to the bridegrooms.
A Ravi Kumar from a village in Gattuppal said: “We are being treated as VIPs by both the parties, thanks to the byelection. They say they feel thrilled that leaders are calling on them.” However, they would like to keep their cards close to their chest regarding their choice of the candidate.
Meanwhile, the TRS and BJP officials assert that, in addition to their family members, there are roughly 5,000 such voters. The most effective strategy to get their votes may be to attend the wedding festivities and give them gifts.
And the TRS has deployed a sizable contingent of more than 1,000 leaders, ranging from ministers, MLAs, and MLCs to party student wing leaders who are sweating it out to persuade voters in the seat, considering the Munugodu by-election as a prestige issue, in a record of sorts.
Ever since the notification was issued for the by-poll, the ruling party leaders from different parts of the State have been camping in the constituency. Presently, there are 14 ministers, 80 MLAs, MLCs, corporation chairpersons, mayors and municipal chairmen, ZP chairpersons and over 600-odd student wing leaders of the party.
While the local leaders will have to provide logistics, the leaders from outside the constituency will be finalising their daily routine of meeting voters door to door during day and also taking up caste-based meetings during in the evening.
According to the party leaders, this should be the biggest contingent so far by the ruling party during any by-poll. The party had deployed leaders in Huzurabad, which was an intensely fought battle but the number of leaders in Munugodu was phenomenal, said a TRS leader.
“The party does not want to take chances after the experiences of Dubbaka and Huzurabad; hence placed all the party machinery in Munugodu. The victory of the party in Munugode will give a message that people of Telangana are with KCR,” the leader said.
The pink party leaders have been explaining to people that it was CM K Chandrashekar Rao who had ensured the fluoride problem was wiped out from the constituency. They are also bringing the contract issue, explaining that Rajgopal Reddy and BJP had imposed this burden on them for contracts worth Rs 18,000 crore.
A few others are out in the field on behalf of squads in addition to the large group of leaders who are campaigning. These teams will be monitoring any improper behaviour by the opposition camps, especially Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy’s camp. The BJP leader is allegedly gifting Brezaa vehicles and bikes to entice public officials, according to the party. All of these leaders will remain in the district through November 1—the end of the election season. #hydnews #hyderabadlive #KhabarLive
