Warangal Gears Up for Prestigious By-poll

Warangal: Campaigning for the Warangal Lok Sabha by-poll comes to a close on Thursday. All the major parties in the fray have taken this particular edition as a presitge issue and roped in political heavy weights to campaign for their respective candidates.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS): Chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao campaigned for the ruling TRS party candidate Pasunuri Dayakar for three days. Minister KT Rama Rao, Harish Rao, Speaker Madhusudana Chari and several stalwarts of the party camped in Warangal for several days to ensure the party's victory. The Warangal LS was held by TRS and fell vacant with the elected MP Kadiam Srihari who preferred to serve as a deputy chief minister in the state after quitting his parliament membership. Kadiam defeated the then Congress sitting MP S. Rajaiah with a thumping four lakh majority. The ruling party is now aiming for a better majority as anything less would be an indication of people's disenchantment with the government.

YSRCP: The YSR Congress party, the main opposition party in the Andhra Pradesh assembly wants to make its presence felt in Telangana too. The party's president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is on a four-day tour of Warangal to campaign for the party's candidate Nalla Suryaprakash. YS Jagan is doing extensive tour of the district that includes seven assembly constituencies.

He has come down heavily on the ruling TRS party in his speeches highlighting the TRS poll promises and its failure to fulfill them in the 18 months of its rule.

Congress: The Congress party's Telangana state unit president Uttam Kumar Reddy has lined up heavy weights such as Digvijaya Singh, Meira Kumar, party veteran Jaipal Reddy and former defence minister Sushil Kumar Shinde for the campaign duty. Apparently, the party wants to prove that it is still relevant in the new state of Telangana.

The party was also swift in its move to wipe out any black stains on its image. The move to replace the party's candidate Siricilla Rajaiah, after he was booked in the mysterious deaths of his daugther-in-law Sarika and grandchildren, was taken and implemented within a couple of hours. The party's new candidate for the polls is former minister Sarve Satyanarayana.

TDP-BJP Combine: The Telangana BJP unit has finalised and forwarded the name of NRI doctor P Devaiah to the central party to be named as candidate for the Warangal by-election. Its ally in the polls, the TDP wanted a strong contender to challenge the ruling TRS candidate. However, the BJP stressed upon the candidature of Devaiah as his social service in the district through his NGO would fetch a good number of votes.