After Dubbaka debacle, KCR focused on Nagarjuna Sagar, fields deceased TRS MLA's son

TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao has leaned on the sentiment factor again and picked Bagath, son of the deceased MLA Nomula Narasimhaiah, as the party's candidate for the Nagarjuna Sagar bypoll.

Tuesday was the last date of filing nominations for the April 17 election, necessitated by the death of sitting TRS MLA Nomula (64) in December.

A prominent Communist leader from the combined Nalgonda district, Nomula surprised the political circles by joining the TRS in 2013. Nomula was elected to the united Andhra Pradesh assembly twice – in 1999 and 2004, from the CPI(M).

Bagath, a management post graduate and an advocate, thanked KCR for reposing faith in him and expected that the Nagarjuna Sagar voters would support him too.

In the November bypoll to Dubbaka, KCR had fielded deceased MLA Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy's widow Sujatha as the TRS candidate to garner sympathy votes. But voters had instead empathised with BJP's Raghunandan Rao, who lost the previous two times and also the Medak Lok Sabha seat in 2019.

However, compared to Dubbaka, the BJP has limited influence in the Nalgonda region, where the Nagarjuna Sagar segment is. The BJP's candidate is Dr P Ravi Kumar, a physician, while the Congress has placed its prominent leader Jana Reddy in the arena.

Jana had represented Nagarjuna Sagar twice before.

Though leaders from the powerful Reddy and other communities expected the ticket, the Telangana BJP favoured a doctor from the ST community, given the large presence of the tribals in the constituency.

Unwilling to take any chance after the Dubbaka debacle, KCR is understood to have laid his focus on Nagarjuna Sagar now.

Much ahead of the bypoll schedule announcement, the chief minister had on February 10 laid the foundation for few lift irrigation schemes in the Nalgonda region, to benefit the hitherto unirrigated farm lands.

Addressing a TRS party rally later at Haliya, falling under Nagarjuna Sagar, KCR launched a political attack on the Congress and the BJP.