Hyderabad: With the sounding of poll bugle in Telangana, political parties are gearing up for a fierce battle. The next 50 days will be crucial as polling will be held on November 30. Congress and BJP have also stepped up their efforts while BRS is leading the campaign, which announced candidates very early. BRS is exuding confidence that the hat-trick is guaranteed with the progress made in the last nine years.
With the recently announced six guarantees, the Congress is confident that the people of Telangana will repose faith in them. After the Karnataka Assembly elections, the BJP, which has been somewhat stagnant, has recently picked up momentum again.
BRS confident of victory
CM KCR announced candidates for 115 seats and gave tickets to all except six sitting MLAs. The BRS sitting MLAs travelled to their Assembly constituencies and conducted many programmes ahead of the poll schedule. Party sources said that there are no problems in the remaining constituencies except four or five places. On the other hand, Ministers KTR and Harish Rao toured two or three constituencies a day and participated in public meetings, inauguration ceremonies and foundation laying.
In the campaign, BRS took the necessary steps to ensure that all sections supported them. It has already completed the first leg of the campaign ahead of schedule. All the candidates have been campaigning in the constituencies for months. On the other hand, Chief Minister KCR, who has been away from the campaign due to fever for a few days, will start a campaign on October 15.
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Congress keeps hope on six guarantees
With the victory in the Karnataka elections, there is excitement in Telangana Congress. It has been aggressively organising programmes for the past three months. The party assumed that the people were dissatisfied with BRS, which had been in power for nine years. CWC held meetings in Hyderabad and Sonia Gandhi announced six guarantees in a massive public meeting held in Hyderabad recently.
It has been decided to take these schemes widely to the people, which will benefit different groups like farmers, women, workers, youth and students. Rumours are rife that the campaign is not going as planned as all the top leaders were involved in the ticket finalisation process. Although they wanted to announce the candidates ahead of the schedule, the exercise has not yet been completed.
In the past, only 60 to 70 constituencies had strong Congress candidates, but now with strong leaders joining the Congress from other parties, the party will give a tough fight to other parties in more than 90 constituencies. Hence, the Congress leaders are confident that they will benefit from the anti-incumbency.
BJP intensifies campaign with the Prime Minister's meetings
After the Karnataka elections and the change of the party's state president, there was stagnation in the BJP, but it gained momentum over the past few months. The party organised public meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Mahabubnagar and Nizamabad. Immediately, the party's national president Nadda attended the state-level meeting and gave direction to the party's rank and file.
Earlier, too, 119 MLAs from BJP-ruled states toured each Assembly constituency in Telangana and brought reports on the status of the party. At the same time, Union Minister and State President Kishan Reddy has been touring the state for the past few days. The BJP government at the Centre is taking to the notice of the people that it has spent Rs 9 lakh crore in Telangana for launching many welfare schemes.
