With MLC seats in TRS kitty, KCR focuses on Sagar bypoll

Hyderabad: Ecstatic with the victory in Council elections under the Graduates quota, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has shifted the focus to the Nagarjuna Sagar bypoll.

KCR wants a repeat performance and is holding strategic meetings with party leaders and MLAs who have been appointed as campaign in-charges for each of the seven mandals in the Assembly constituency.

The Chief Minister on Sunday reviewed the ongoing campaign. The MLAs have been asked not to leave the constituency till the elections are over. He told them that they can even abstain themselves from the proceedings of the session so that there was no break in the campaign.

It may be mentioned here that a good number of seats in ruling party benches are vacant during the ongoing budget session. The party had appointed one election in-charge for every 50 voters.

The party leaders have already constituted teams in mandals and have completed the first round of door-to-door campaign. The next phase of campaign would begin soon after the name of the candidate was announced.

The party had appointed in-charges for the seven mandals. Government Whip Balka Suman has been appointed for Peddapur mandal, Ramagundam MLA K Chander for Anumula mandal, Devarakonda MLA Ravindra Kumar for Tirumalagiri, Nalgonda MLA Kancharla Bhupal Reddy for Gurrampode mandal, Miryalguda MLA N Bhaskar Rao Nidamanuru, Mahabubabad MLA B Shankar Naik for Tripuraram mandal and Armur MLA A Jeevan Reddy for Madgulapally mandal. Among the MLAs many are young and are close to TRS working president KT Rama Rao.

The party is yet to take a decision on the candidate but it is speculated that Nomula Narasimhaiah's son Nomula Bhagat is likely to be the candidate. Party leaders said that Bhagat had recently met KT Rama Rao. The nomination process for the bypoll would start from Tuesday and the last date for filing nomination is March 30.

The polling would be held on April 17 and the result would be announced on May 2.