Hyderabad: Harish Rao puts TRS ahead of others in Dubbaka bypoll

Hyderabad: The Dubbaka by poll has become a prestigious battle for the ruling TRS and the two Opposition parties -- BJP and Congress, though the pink party appears to have a clear edge over other parties.

Leaders of all parties exude confidence that their candidate will win. But if the way the TRS campaign, spearheaded by Finance Minister T Harish Rao, has been going on is any indication, the wind appears to be blowing in favour of the TRS candidate. The question that haunts the TRS is regarding the majority of votes with which it would win. In the last election S Ramalinga Reddy of the TRS had won with a majority of 62,500 over his nearest Congress rival Nageshwar Rao. Reddy had polled 89,299 votes.

Harish Rao has been campaigning in the constituency for the past 13 days. He came to Hyderabad to call on former Home Minister Nayani Narsimha Reddy who is undergoing treatment at Apollo hospital and went back to Dubbaka. As the campaign took off in Dubbaka, initially it was said that the campaign by BJP candidate Raghunandan Rao was gathering momentum. That was the time when Harish Rao tested positive for corona and had to be in isolation.

But as he back in action, Harish Rao has been vigorously campaigning in the constituency. He even succeeded in pulling some BJP and Congress leaders into the pink party. This included Congress leader M Nageshwar Reddy, who had unsuccessfully contested the election in 2018.

As the BJP had taken up a campaign that the state was utilising Central funds for state government schemes, Harish Rao challenged state BJP president Bandi Sanjay to prove its claim. He said if the BJP could prove the argument, he would resign as the minister and if it fails Sanjay should resign as MP and state BJP president. He also asked them to prove where and when the Centre had given Rs 1,600 as pension to beedi workers.

Meanwhile, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday claimed that the Congress was all set to win the Dubbak Assembly byelection with a huge majority. Addressing various meetings in Thoguta mandal, Mirdoddi mandal and Dubbaka mandal and Dubbaka town, Uttam said the TRS would suffer a severe setback in Dubbak byelection as the ruling party leaders have failed to implement the promises they had made. "People have realized that the TRS government has failed on all fronts and it never honoured the promises it made to the people," he said.