TRS, Congress get ready for bypoll in Huzurnagar

Hyderabad: With the Election Commission of India announcing the schedule for Huzurnagar Assembly bye-election on Saturday, once again Telangana is going to witness political heat for next one month.

Both the Congress and the TRS have taken this election as a prestige issue and are going to spare no efforts to win the seat.

Now that the Assembly session is also coming to end on Sunday, the rank and file of both parties are going to concentrate on this constituency.

Already the Congress party has started holding meetings and claim that they will wrest the seat with a majority of 30,000 votes.

N Padmavati, wife of TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy is the party candidate from this constituency.

Senior leaders, including K Jana Reddy, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and others have also closed ranks and have taken up the responsibility to wrest the seat.

The TRS feels that it is do or die kind of situation since they want to tell the BJP that despite the loud noises they are making, they are not gaining ground politically and that TRS continues to be the most sought-after party in the state. Hence, they have taken it up as a highly prestigious election.

The TRS has announced the name of party in-charge for Huzurnagar S Saidi Reddy as the candidate. Saidi Reddy told media that he was confident of winning a huge majority as people were unanimous that TRS has been working hard for overall development of the state.

Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy is overseeing the party campaign in the elections. Saidi Reddy lost to Uttam from Huzurnagar in 2018 Assembly elections.

However, the BJP is still looking for a strong candidate. Leaders said that the BJP is likely to field a woman leader from Huzurnagar. Srikala Reddy, who recently quit Congress and joined BJP, is one of the prospective candidates.

Polling will be held on October 21 while counting of votes will be taken up on October 24. Chief Electoral Officer, Telangana Rajat Kumar speaking to newsmen on Saturday stated that they will be keeping extra vigil since the constituency was close to AP border.

He said that the help of the neighbouring state authorities would be taken to ensure a free and fair by-poll. All steps would be taken to curb the illegal flow of cash and liquor.

Rajat Kumar said that Model Code of Conduct had come into effect from Saturday.

Neither ministers nor MLAs should not take part in any official programmes. He said that voter list would be as per January 1, 2019. The notification will be released on September 23 and nominations would be accepted from the same day.

The last date for filing of nominations is September 30. Scrutiny of nominations will be on October 1 while the last date for withdrawal of nominations is October 3.