More than a year after the Parliament elections when it had wrested four Lok Sabha seats in Telangana even defeating Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter K. Kavita in Nizamabad, celebrations broke out in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State party headquarters at Nampally on Tuesday.
With party candidate M. Raghunandan Rao’s stunning victory over TRS candidate S. Sujatha in Dubbak byelection, which the ruling party was confident of retaining, the BJP has shown that LS polls win was no flash in the pan as many observed then.
The national party has, perhaps for the first time has shown sufficient indications that it is ready to be the alternative to the TRS and may have shown people at large about its prowess in wresting the initiative by breaking the seemingly impregnable fortress carefully built by KCR.
TRS has been winning consistently every bypoll all these years and there has been certain amount of ennui for this election among the ruling party that sentiment, welfare schemes, irrigation projects, support of official machinery, senior leader and Finance Minister Harish Rao’s sharp political instinct et al will pull them through, once again.
It was not to be as BJP’s Mr. Raghunandan Rao led in most of the rounds when votes were being counted, even if it was slender and there were times when the TRS seemed to have lost ground in some rounds. Despite tense moments in between there was no stopping him from winning decisively and full throated slogans, bursting of crackers, patting backs and sweets distribution was all over the party office towards late afternoon/evening.
“What is significant is Dubbak is predominantly rural and we have managed to win the confidence of voters especially youth. Looks like people have decided to dump the Congress after the Assembly elections experience and BJP is the beacon of hope against the TRS family rule as they have been looking for a change,” remarked a senior party leader, seeking anonymity.
Another leader claimed that the stark contrast in development of neighbouring Gajwel, Sircilla and Siddipet represented by the CM, KTR and Harish Rao was difficult to cover up by the ruling party. “TRS played into our hands first by decimating the Congress and leaving the field open for us. The manner in which our party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar was given rough treatment by the police and raids against the party candidate’s family and relatives helped us get people’s sympathy,” he claimed.
Senior leaders say stopping registrations in the last few months for ‘Dharani’ launch has also come as a shocker for many families. “There is anger among the people but whether COVID-19 mismanagement and tardy flood relief/rehabilitation will help us in GHMC elections, Dubbak has certainly given us a boost,” they add.
