Assembly Polls Ahead: Aspirants bitten by survey bug

Hyderabad: Due to fear and hope, the present MLAs and aspirants in all the three major parties -- BRS, Congress and BJP -- have hit upon a method to assess their popularity among the voters.

Leaders of these parties have started hiring agencies to conduct Interactive Voice Response (IVR) surveys so as to assess people’s choice of the next MLA. These leaders want to confront their respective high commands with the data thus collected to stake their claim to the party ticket. The IVR surveys are being conducted on random basis.

With back-to-back victory in Himachal and Karnataka, there seems to be newly-found enthusiasm in the Congress and as a result the number of aspirants is also growing. The BJP, which is aspiring to come to power in the state, also witnessing the number of aspirants for the party tickets growing.

The BRS leaders want to know where they stand because, recently, party chief K Chandrasekhar Rao has made it clear that he would replace some of the sitting members if their popularity graph does not improve.

People who were receiving calls on their mobiles in the Maheshwaram Assembly segment told Hans India that the caller mentioned the names of MLA and minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy, BRS leader T Krishna Reddy, Subhash Reddy and asked them to press 1 or 2 or 3 depending upon their choice.

They said the ticket aspirants from the BRS and Congress were high this time. In the Kodad Assembly segment, senior BRS leader K Shashidhar Reddy was vying with sitting MLA B Mallayya Yadav for the party ticket.

Shashidhar Reddy has already created a separate group and started campaigning in the constituency to emerge as a strong contender for the party ticket. The BRS leader has been seeking people’s feedback through mobile calls and recording the data which he wants to submit to the party leadership soon. Similarly, BRS leader from the LB Nagar Assembly segment Ram Mohan Goud was also getting surveys conducted so that he could stake claim for the party ticket.

Sitting MLA D Sudhir Reddy wants to prove that he was the best leader to contest again from the segment on the BRS ticket.

He was elected as an MLA on Congress ticket in 2018 Assembly elections and joined the BRS after the results.

It is learnt that BJP leaders K Srisailam Goud from Sherlingampally and Chintala Ram Chandra Reddy from Khairatabad approached the agencies to conduct a random survey on their popularity through IVR system. Congress leader from Jubilee Hills P Vishnuvardhan Reddy would take a final call after the outcome of the survey as he was not happy with the Congress leadership for ignoring him in the party.