Congress Too Optimistic on Warangal Lok Sabha By-election

It may sound too optimistic for the Congress party to clinch a seat or two in by-elections from the ruling TRS in Telangana, but the party seems hell-bent on winning the Warangal Lok Sabha by-election.Undeterred by the growing popularity of the TRS with the implementation of popular 2-bedroom flats, the Congress is taking Warangal by-election as a prestige issue and leaving no-stone unturned including luring the party leaders with great prospects in future only for those who work for the winning of the party candidate.

The AICC general secretary and the state in-charge of the party Digvijay Singh visited Warangal last week with the only agenda of finding a right candidate for the bypoll. Although several leaders are competing for the party ticket, the exercise of narrowing down on the winning candidate is still going on. On Tuesday, the AICC SC Cell chairman Koppula Raju held a meeting with the state congress committee president Uttam Kumar Reddy, working president Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, former minister Ponnala Laxmaiah, DCC president Nayini Rajender Reddy and other leaders to bring about a consensus on the candidate for the seat.

Speaking at the meeting, Koppula Raju said Congress party is introducing a system to select candidates by local leaders and cadres for all the elections and Warangal is the first in that direction. He said a senior leader will be appointed as in-charge of each mandal for the by-election and the it's their duty to ensure the party's victory. He is confident that by highlighting the TRS government's failures in the last one-and-a-half years in containing farmers' suicides, the party can easily win the by-election.