Congress, BJP locked in fierce battle for Telangana MLC polls

Hyderabad, Feb 23 (IANS) An interesting battle is on the cards between Telangana’s ruling party Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Legislative Council seat from Karimnagar-Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad graduates’ constituency.

With the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which is the main opposition party in the Assembly, staying away, it will be a direct fight between Congress and BJP for the February 27 election.

Congress has fielded V. Narender Reddy, chairman of a chain of educational institutions from Karimnagar while BJP has announced industrialist C. Anji Reddy as its candidate.

The stakes are high for both parties. A victory for Congress will be seen as a mandate for its 14-month rule while a win for BJP will further boost the party’s morale in north Telangana, the region where it swept the Lok Sabha elections last year.

While the Congress party’s senior leader and former minister T. Jeevan Reddy is the sitting MLC from this constituency, the BJP is banking on its strong presence having won all four Lok Sabha constituencies – Karimnagar, Medak, Nizamabad and Adilabad.

Looking to improve its presence in the Legislative Council, the BJP has also fielded candidates for two other MLC seats – Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar and Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda teachers’ constituencies.

The elections to teachers’ constituencies are usually not contested on a party basis but BJP surprised its rivals by fielding its candidates. Currently, both seats are represented by independents.

The BJP is also running an aggressive campaign in these constituencies with Union Coal Minister G. Kishan Reddy and Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who is also the party MP from Karimnagar, leading the charge.

The Congress party also roped in a few ministers for its campaign. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Mahesh Kumar Goud is also actively campaigning for the party.

Interestingly, both Congress and BJP are accusing each other of a secret agreement with the BRS. While the ruling party leaders have accused BRS of staying away from a contest to help BJP, the latter has claimed a secret understanding between Congress and BRS.

BRS, whose leaders have been claiming that the Congress government lost people’s trust in a short period of 14 months, surprised all by deciding not to field the candidate. BRS president and former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao decided not to contest the MLC election as he wanted the party to focus on the upcoming local body elections.

Though BRS officially did not give any reason for staying away from MLC polls, its leaders felt that a defeat would negatively impact its efforts to bounce back after drawing a blank in Lok Sabha elections and also losing 10 MLAs to the ruling party.

Karimnagar-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Medak Graduates constituency spans nearly 42 assembly segments and has more than 355,159 voters. The outcome may reflect the mood among the educated voters.

Political analysts say Congress faces a tough battle to retain the seat as the BJP is going all out to repeat its Lok Sabha polls performance.

During the campaign, the BJP leaders accused Congress of failing to fulfil the promises made during the Assembly elections

They are questioning the ruling party about the unkept promise of two lakh jobs within a year.

Targeting BRS for not fielding a single candidate and ridiculing Congress for shying away from contesting in teachers’ constituencies, Kishan Reddy claimed both parties faced opposition from youth and teachers.

Kishan Reddy, who is also the state president of BJP, is confident of the party winning all three MLC seats.

The BJP has fielded Puli Sarottham Reddy from the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda teachers’ constituency and Malka Komaraiah from the Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar teachers’ constituency.

During the campaign for graduates’ constituency, leaders of the Congress party are trying to highlight the schemes implemented to fulfil the promises made in Assembly elections and the recent achievements of the government in conducting a case survey in the state and sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes for implementation of reservation as per the judgment of Supreme Court.

The Congress leaders have been accusing the BJP of trying to seek votes in the name of religion. They are also trying to highlight the filling of 55,000 vacancies in the government departments.

BJP had announced its candidates for all three MLC seats even before the announcement of the poll schedule by the Election Commission. There was a clear change of strategy by the BJP, which was the last to announce its candidates for the November 2023 Assembly elections and May 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP won Medak, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Adilabad Lok Sabha constituencies under which the graduates’ constituency falls. Seven of the eight Assembly seats held by BJP are in these four districts.

The BJP is upbeat after doubling its Lok Sabha tally from the state to eight, which was its best-ever performance.

The BJP, which won four seats in 2019 with a vote share of 19.5 per cent, improved its vote share to 35.08 per cent. This was a huge gain for the BJP, which had polled 13.90 per cent votes in the November 2023 Assembly elections and won eight seats in the 119-member Assembly.

The BJP will be looking to repeat the result of the MLC election held in March 2023 when AVN Reddy, a candidate of the BJP-affiliated teachers’ union, won Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad Teachers’ constituency. He is the lone BJP MLC in the 40-member Legislative Council.

The Congress, which had bagged 64 seats in the 119-member Assembly, increased its tally to 75 with the defection of 10 BRS MLAs to its camp. The ruling party also wrested the Secunderabad Assembly seat in the by-election last year.

The BRS which had 29 members (including four nominated members) in the 40-member strong Legislative Council, has lost eight MLCs to Congress during the last year.

(Mohammed Shafeeq can be contacted at M.Shafeeq@ians.in)

–IANS

ms/svn