After Dubbaka and GHMC setbacks, Nagarjuna Sagar bypoll compels KCR's on ground involvement

KCR is midway his second term and any electoral setback is seen as a sign of the CM's weakening grip on the state

In his election rally in Nagarjuna Sagar on Wednesday, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao assured new ration cards for the poor, government pensions for those above 57 years of age and other benefits, in addition to the lift irrigation waters promised to the parched lands.

While asking the people to vote on the basis of development he brought, the TRS supremo played safe and dwelled on his role in the formation of Telangana and “the region's backwardness during the Congress rule earlier.”

“I risked my life for statehood and carried on with my fast despite health warnings,” KCR sought to remind the voters of the December 2009 episode when the Congress-led UPA government had for the first time made an announcement in favour of Telangana creation.

The Anumula public meeting was the second rally addressed in Nagarjuna Sagar by KCR, as the CM is popularly known, in just over two months.

Ahead of the bypoll announcement, KCR has, on 10 February, laid the foundation for few lift irrigation schemes in the region, and later addressing a TRS rally at Haliya launched a political attack on the Congress and the BJP.

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

The bypolls for the assembly constituency would be held on Saturday, necessitated by the death of the sitting TRS MLA Nomula Narasimhaiah in December.

KCR's overt involvement in Nagarjuna Sagar is a major shift from the Dubbaka bypoll, where the TRS boasted to win with over one lakh votes majority but ended up losing the sitting seat to the BJP. Confident of an easy victory, KCR had left the poll management to his nephew and finance minister Harish Rao.

With the BJP gaining a foothold in the state with Dubbaka in November and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections in December despite his son and IT, municipal administration minister KT Rama Rao's extensive campaign in the capital city, analysts say Nagarjuna Sagar compelled KCR's on-ground presence once again.

And more so at a time when KCR is midway through his second term and any electoral setback is seen as a sign of the CM's weakening grip on the state.

Thus, the ruling party seems to be sweating it out to retain Nagarjuna Sagar with an improved majority of votes, deploying its ministers and other party resources in the predominantly rural-tribal constituency.

Even during the height of the statehood agitation and in the first elections post-Telangana creation in April 2014, Nagarjuna Sagar, named after the dam and reservoir on the Krishna river, remained out of TRS's reach.

In 2009 and 2014, Congress veteran and former home minister Jana Reddy won the seat. The TRS could gain the segment only in 2018, with Nomula, a Communist leader earlier, becoming the MLA by defeating Jana.

Leaning on the sentiment factor, KCR picked Bagath, son of Nomula, as the party's candidate now.

The Congress has fielded Jana again now, while the BJP's candidate is Dr Ravi Kumar, a physician from the ST community considering the tribal presence in the constituency.

Though the BJP has limited influence in the Nalgonda region, where Nagarjuna Sagar is, the party is trying to make electoral inroads here with this bypoll.