All-out battle ensues in Huzurabad

Hyderabad: With corona cases receding, the TRS is going all out to ensure that the party retains the Huzurabad Assembly constituency in case of a byelection once the former Health Minister Eatala Rajender resigns from Assembly.

While Finance Minister T Harish Rao is leaving no stone unturned to see that the rank and file remain with the party, Eatala too is trying his best to see that his followers and the vote bank are not hijacked by the ruling party.

The ground situation indicates that the party has decided to adopt a dual strategy. One: Announce sops for the constituency. Two: Poach influential leaders from other parties. They are also focussing on sarpanches to ensure that they do not go with Eatala. TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao is likely to visit Karimnagar towards the last week of June to hold a meeting with all district leaders and give them the route map to see that the party wins the seat when elections are held.

Those who are being lured to join TRS are BJP senior leader and party incharge of Huzurabad segment E Peddi Reddi and Congress in-charge P Kaushik Reddy. Peddi Reddy it may be recalled had recently opposed the entry of Eatala and later relented after the state president Bandi Sanjay spoke to him.

Kaushik Reddy, who exposed the alleged land encroachment by Eatala, is being viewed as a strong leader in the constituency. He had lost to Eatala in the 2018 election.

Party sources said that KCR entrusted the responsibility of talking to these big leaders in Huzurabad to some TRS senior leaders and ministers from the old Karimnagar district. If it succeeds in winning over Peddi Reddy, TRS feels it would help in weakening the BJP.

To counter Rajender's political dominance in Karimnagar district, KCR wanted to promote one big leader from the BC community to checkmate the former TRS leader, according to a TRS leader. TDP Telangana unit president L Ramana is the first choice to checkmate Rajender from the BC community in the politically sensitive district. Hence, Panchayat Raj Minister E Dayakar Rao is said to be in touch with L Ramana. It may be mentioned here that Dayakar Rao and Ramana worked together in TDP

earlier.

Speculations are rife that he would join TRS once the byelection notification was issued.

Sources said that State Planning Board Vice-Chairman B Vinod Kumar and BC Welfare Minister G Kamalakar were entrusted with the job of luring Rajender's close associates who were holding district and mandal level posts in the local bodies. Eatala is also putting in all possible efforts to see that his flock does not migrate to TRS. It remains to be seen if Huzurabad would become a starting point for another movement in Telangana state as claimed by Eatala.