Sagar Bypoll : KCR keeps everyone guessing on candidate

Hyderabad: The TRS is likely to announce the name of the party candidate for Nagarjuna Sagar by-elections by Monday evening.

It is learnt that the party president K Chandrasekhar Rao has been deliberately delaying the announcement of the candidate as part of his strategy to ensure that there was no dissension in the party and those who fail to get the ticket do not get time to create any problems for the winning chances of the official candidate.

There are a large number of aspirants for the seat. It may be mentioned here that the last date for filing the nominations is March 30. Meanwhile, the party has appointed in-charges for all the mandals in the constituency.

MLAs, who have been appointed as in-charges, have already completed one round of door-to-door campaign. During the campaign, they have been meeting the beneficiaries of the various schemes of the government and seeking their votes.

Vote for TRS is their main plea to the voters. According to KCR, there were 1.5 lakh beneficiaries in Nagarjuna Sagar constituency.

In all probability, KCR may announce the name of Nomula Bhagat, son of Nomula Narsimhaiah who died recently. TRS feels that in addition to the sympathy factor, the developmental activities of Narsimhaiah would help Bhagat win easily, the party feels. On the other hand the BJP is waiting for TRS to announce its candidate.

They are also likely to announce the name of the candidate either on Monday or by Tuesday morning.

The saffron party feels that there is a possibility of a good number of TRS leaders and activists joining BJP if the pink party announces the name of Chairman of the Legislative Council Gutha Sukhendra Reddy.

If that happens, BJP feels that Koti Reddy, a close aide of Gutha will switch loyalties to BJP. Koti Reddy was a close aide of Congress senior leader K Jana Reddy but since he could not get any position there, he joined TRS. A section of the TRS feels that Gutha can give a tough fight to Jana Reddy of Congress.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Nivedita Reddy filed nomination papers even before the party announced her name as party candidate.