Telangana: Turncoats worked on the sly for Congress?

HYDERABAD: After losing every byelection post-2018 assembly elections, Congress is keeping its fingers crossed in the Munugode bypoll, the result of which will be announced on Sunday.
Congress candidate Palvai Sravanthi had covered almost every village of the constituency in her campaign. Though Congress leaders campaigned in every mandal, the party is banking on getting a huge chunk of votes from Chandur and Samsthan Narayanpur, which also has the traditional vote bank of the grand old party.

Telangana Congress president A Revanth Reddy had extensively campaigned in Samsthan Narayanpur mandal by holding road shows. Speaking to STOI, Sravanthi exuded confidence of Congress achieving success despite TRS and BJP banking on liquor, money and muscle power to win the elections.
In the 2018 assembly election, the then Congress candidate K Raj Gopal Reddy had polled over 99,000 votes and won with over 37,000-vote majority. "Mostly it was a Congress vote. Also, CPI, TDP and TJS were alliance partners of Congress then and their vote bank too added to the victory margin. In this bypoll, the equations are different and Congress definitely stands a chance to win. Women have been overwhelmingly supporting our slogan that TRS and BJP were ruining the future of students and youth through liquor culture," she added.
Senior Congress leaders believe that though Raj Gopal Reddy had weaned away local cadre, several of them worked silently for the grand old party. "Congress was first to launch the campaign and also the first party to formally announce its candidate. At one point of time, TRS and BJP got scared. Congress election material was set ablaze at its office in Chandur. Sravanthi's vehicle and convoy was attacked," a senior Congress leader said.
Given the importance of the bypoll ahead of the 2023 assembly elections, party's top guns A Revanth Reddy, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Bhatti Vikramarka, T Jayaprakash Reddy, Mohd Ali Shabbir, SA Sampath Kumar, V Hanumanth Rao, J Geetha Reddy among others campaigned in the constituency despite the tight schedule of Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra in the state.
However, the absence of party's star campaigner and local MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy from the campaign is sure to have its impact on the poll prospects of the party. Venkat Reddy enjoys a considerable support from the voters in the constituency, but has kept away from the hustings. His younger brother Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy contested from BJP and there were allegations that he had sought the support of even Congress workers to work for Raj Gopal.