Munugode bypoll: KCR ups the ante for first battle post BRS as BJP turns up heat ahead of 2023 war

Facing a stiff challenge from an aggressive BJP, the BRS is campaigning with all its might in a bid to clinch the seat and send a message to the saffron camp.

The BRS is banking on KCR’s popularity as well as a raft of welfare schemes that the party-led state government has launched in the last eight years (File)

The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana has deputed its 84 MLAs and 14 ministers to the Munugode Assembly constituency in Nalgonda district, which is set for a high-stakes bypoll on November 3. The bypoll will be the first test for Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known as KCR, since he renamed the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) as the BRS while launching it as a national party on October 5.

Facing a stiff challenge from an aggressive BJP, the BRS is campaigning with all its might in a bid to clinch the seat and send a message to the saffron camp. If the BJP wins the Munugode constituency, it will be a huge setback for the BRS in the run-up to the 2023 Assembly elections. BRS supremo KCR has warned his ministers and MLAs that a loss in Munugode would be “unacceptable” to him.

The Munugode seat bypoll was necessitated following the resignation of sitting Congress MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy on August 2, who quit the party citing differences with the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC)’s president A Revanth Reddy. Rajagopal Reddy joined the BJP on August 21 in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who declared that the former will be the saffron party’s candidate in the Munugode bypoll whose outcome, he said, will lead to the KCR regime’s “ouster” in the Assembly polls.

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The Telangana Congress, which has been in dire straits, has also been trying to put its act together as it gears up to put up a tough fight. All the three leading candidates in the Munugode fray belong to the upper caste Reddy community. The Congress has fielded Palvai Sravanthi Reddy, the daughter of former MLA and Rajya Sabha MP Palvai Govardhan Reddy from the seat, while the BRS has given ticket to ex-MLA Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy.

The Munugode byelection is taking place in a surcharged political atmosphere, with both the BRS and a resurgent BJP launching a high-voltage campaign to bag the constituency, seeing it as a precursor to their decisive 2023 battle. Despite the bypoll being billed as a triangular affair, it is going to be a straight fight between the BRS and the BJP.

The BJP is countering the BRS through its 22 committees, deploying a slew of its leaders to boost Rajagopal Reddy’s prospects. Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar said that the state party leaders were camping in Munugode and that bike rallies would be taken out in all mandals. Sanjay Kumar will be the party’s star campaigner.

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BJP MLA M Raghunandan Rao, who is among the leaders deployed in Munugode to manage the party’s electioneering, said that Amit Shah will also join the campaign in a week or two.

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The BJP’s Telangana in-charge Sunio Bansal said that a 14-member election steering committee headed by G Vivek Swamy has been set up and local in-charges have been appointed in all mandals in the constituency. The BJP’s plank in the bypoll against the BRS is its accusation that the KCR dispensation has allegedly failed to develop the state and has been involved in corruption cases, even as the party is promising a “double-engine” government in the state and at the Centre if it wins the 2023 Assembly polls.

On the other hand, the BRS is banking on KCR’s popularity as well as a raft of welfare schemes that the party-led state government has launched in the last eight years. R&B minister V Prashanth Reddy, who is also camping at Munugode, said that they have started door-to-door drives to meet with people and discuss with them all the schemes and welfare measures that the BRS government has been implementing. The BRS is also making an outreach to the 20 per cent Dalit population in the constituency by showcasing its Dalit Bandhu scheme. The BRS is holding “aatmeeya sammelan” meetings with Dalits too. “The BRS and CM KCR are very popular here. BJP candidate will lose his deposit,’’ V Prashanth Reddy claimed.

The BRS’s candidate Palvai Sravanthi Reddy said that her BJP rival was under the wrong impression that his erstwhile Congress support base has also switched to the BJP along with him. “He (Rajagopal Reddy) won in 2018 due to the support of loyal Congress voters who have not switched sides like him. I will spring a surprise on BJP and BRS,’’ she said.

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Sources said that there has been a “new-found enthusiasm” even in the Congress’s Telangana unit due to Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra. The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC), which has been plagued by factionalism and infighting over resentment against Revanth Reddy, seems to be making attempts to set its divided house in order.

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Senior TPCC leader M Bhatti Vikramarka, Nalgonda MP and former TPCC chief N Uttam Reddy, and the TPCC Political Affairs Committee’s convener and ex-minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir and other Congress leaders are holding meetings, calling upon the party rank and file to work hard in an organised manner to ensure Palvai Sravanthi Reddy’s victory in the crucial Munugode bypoll.