Munugodu bypoll: Facing BJP onslaught, KCR takes support of Left parties

KCR has asked the Munugodu voters to choose between the 'anti-farmer BJP and his TRS government'

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has asked the Munugodu voters to choose between the “anti-farmer BJP and his TRS government providing free power, farm input incentives, farmer insurance etc support to the agriculture sector”.

Facing the saffron party's onslaught in the state and Munugodu, KCR is taking the support of Left parties which had a strong base in Nalgonda earlier.

“There is a need for all the progressive parties to unite and fight against the anti-people policies of the central government. Such forces should be assembled together by the TRS, CPI, CPM. I thank the CPI for deciding to support the TRS candidate. CPM would also join us,” KCR said, accompanied by a Left leader on the dais. He was addressing a public rally, Prajadeevena Sabhạ, in the poll-bound assembly constituency in West Telangana's Nalgonda region, which is largely dependent on farming.

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Bypolls are imminent in Munugodu as the sitting Congress MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy has quit and his resignation already accepted by the Telangana assembly speaker Srinivas Reddy earlier this month. Rajagopal is expected to contest as the BJP candidate.

Even though it is unclear as to when the ECI would conduct the bypoll, the three main parties TRS, BJP and the Congress are kickstarting their campaigning this weekend.

On Sunday, Union Minister Amit Shah is expected to address a BJP rally in the constituency, while the Telangana Congress has launched a village-voter connect programme on Saturday on the occasion of late PM Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary. The TRS and Congress are yet to finalise their candidates.

KCR said that the bypolls were forced on Munugodu, “where BJP could never save its election deposit”.

The chief minister said that the central government wants to fix meters for the free agriculture power connections. “I will not let that happen. Rythu-bandhu (annual farm input incentive of Rs 10,000 per acre), Rythu-bima (insurance) schemes would not stop. Gujarat gives a pension of Rs 600, here we give Rs 2,000. If the BJP is elected to power, all welfare schemes would end. You decide who you want to vote for now.”

KCR said that the Narendra Modi government cannot scare him with agencies like the Enforcement Directorate.

The TRS chief said that a vote for Congress “is a vote wasted, as the party is non-existent in the state and the country.”