Nagarjuna Sagar bypolls: Bid to stamp out Opposition in Telangana

For the ruling TRS in Telangana, the by-election for the Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly seat is another opportunity to change the political discourse about the BJP emerging as a doughty contender for power in the state for the next Assembly elections in 2023. The BJP’s win in the Dubbaka bypoll and its gains in the GHMC elections had led to the narrative that the TRS was on a downhill journey. The Telangana ruling party, which sensed the change in people’s perception, got its act together, and took sweet revenge on the BJP by defeating its incumbent MLC in the Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar graduates’ constituency and by cutting down to size the saffron party’s candidate in Warangal-Nalgonda-Khammam.

Now that the bypoll for Nagarjuna Sagar has arrived, the TRS does not want the BJP even to entertain hopes of putting up a good show, leave alone winning it. That is the reason why KCR is welcoming with his arms wide open BJP leaders who could not get party nomination, like Anjaiah Yadav, for whom a red carpet was rolled out at the CM’s farm house. The BJP has positioned a little-known tribal doctor P Ravi Kumar Naik to fight it out with TRS and the Congress. The saffron party does not have great hopes as it has very little presence in the constituency.

KCR, a Machiavellian strategist himself, is always careful not to miss the woods for the trees. He knows that if he takes his eyes off Nagarjuna Sagar, the Congress, which is fielding seven-time MLA and former minister K Jana Reddy—who in fact is bigger than the party itself—might walk away with the cake. As KCR does not want a lame-duck Congress to acquire new strength, he nominated Nomula Bhagat, son of the incumbent TRS MLA, the late Nomula Narasimhaiah, who belongs to the Yadava community that is numerically strong in the constituency. He expects the sympathy factor to work in favour of Bhagat apart from pulling out all stops to ensure victory for him so that no green shouts sprout in the grand old party.