The by-polls to assembly and Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh slated for May 29, will be the litmus test for major political parties in the state.
HYDERABAD: The by-polls to assembly and Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh slated for May 29, will be the litmus test for major political parties in the state.
The by-polls were necessitated after TRS members resigned en masse from the state assembly and the Lok Sabha to protest over the delay in announcing a separate Telangana state by the Centre.
With suspense over film actor Chiranjeevi’s entry into politics still continuing, a triangular fight is anticipated between the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) and the Congress. The TRS is likely to be supported by the BJP, while the Congress plans to align with the CPI, and the TDP with the CPI(M).
It is a do or die situation for the seven-year-old TRS led by former union minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. However, the hostility between the TRS and the Congress will be a boon for the TDP which was trounced in Telengana region by the joint fight of the TRS, the Congress and the left parties in 2004.
Elections to two assembly seats were necessitated after the sitting legislators died. Forty of the 107 assembly segments in Telengana will go to polls. The result will be out June 1. This is the second major electoral battle for Telangana in the last 24 months.
TRS chief Chandrasekhar Rao had trounced Congress candidate and his uncle M Satyanarayana Rao in a by-poll to the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat in April 2007 by a massive margin of two lakh votes. While for the TRS, it is a sentimental fight for a separate identity, the Congress-led by chief minister S Rajasekhara Reddy, it is the development mantra.
“The TRS should not forget it had won 26 seats of the 32 it had contested only due to support of the Congress,” said former APCC president K Keshav Rao. It also has its recent Rs2 a kg rice scheme to ask for votes from the electorate.
The TDP on the other hand, which has till now stuck to its united Andhra plank, is promising to give both the TRS and the Congress a tough fight. But whether it will sing a different tune after the 2004 experience, and as also the rising demands within its own ranks for a separate Telangana, remains to be seen.
The party had lost in various Telangana seats with margins of over 10,000 votes in 2004. The TDP leader T Devender Gowd, who is the party mascot for Telengana region said, “We will try to cash in on the deception of the Congress and the inconsistent image of the TRS which lacks credibility after failing to deliver its promise of a separate Telangana”.
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