The stage is set for polling in Telangana on Thursday (November 30) to elect members to the 119-seat legislative assembly. A high decibel campaign saw the likes of top national leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi and ruling BRS supremo K Chandrasekar Rao, addressing a series of meetings crisscrossing the state.
The campaigning for the election came to an end on November 28. The ruling BRS has made all efforts to score a hat-trick, while the Congress, which has been on a winning spree after Karnataka, is also eyeing power by assuring its ‘six guarantees’ to voters. The BJP, meanwhile, is going with the promise of making a chief minister from the backward classes if it comes to power.
Top candidates in the fray are chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, his minister-son KT Rama Rao, state Congress president A Revanth Reddy and BJP Lok Sabha members Bandi Sanjay Kumar and D Arvind.
The BRS is keen on extending its winning run that started in 2014, while the Congress is putting up a spirited fight to win the polls having tasted defeat in 2018 and four years earlier, when the previous UPA government granted statehood to Telangana. The BJP is also leaving no stone unturned to come to power for the first time in the southern state.
The ruling party has fielded candidates in all 119 seats. As per the seat sharing agreement, BJP and actor Pawan Kalyan-headed Jana Sena are contesting in 111 and eight seats, respectively. The Congress has given one seat to its ally CPI, and fighting from 118 others. Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM has put up candidates in nine segments in the city. BSP boss Mayawati was also seen campaigning for the elections.
BRS
Chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known as KCR, is contesting from two segments — Gajwel and Kamareddy. He represents Gajwel in the outgoing legislative assembly. Kamareddy and Gajwel are witnessing exciting contests; more so in Kamareddy as the chief minister is pitched in a contest against the charismatic Revanth Reddy.
For the BRS, KCR addressed 96 public meetings during the campaign, while his son KTR also campaigned extensively. His daughter K Kavitha, the Nizamabad MLC, also campaigned for the party and her father.
The party’s campaign centered around the previous Congress regime’s failures and this regime’s ongoing welfare measures for farmers and women and other sections of society. Rao also highlighted his struggle to achieve Telangana statehood.
Much to the embarrassment of the BRS government, however, the National Dam Safety Authority had given an adverse report on the sinking of a barrage, which is part of Kaleshwaram irrigation project; this had provided ammunition to the opposition.
Congress
The Congress has fielded state president Revanth Reddy to take on the CM in Kamareddy. A Lok Sabha member, he is also contesting from Kodangal that he had represented earlier.
The Congress has come up with an elaborate and meticulous campaign, led by its leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Reddy. It focused mainly on the alleged corruption of the BRS government while highlighting its six poll guarantees.
The Congress also could not stress enough during the campaign, that the BRS was the BJP’s “B-team” and both parties had conspired to support each other against the grand old party.
BJP
Making the Kamareddy contest more interesting is BJP candidate Venkata Ramana Reddy, who is no pushover either. In Gajwel, too, the BJP has deployed its election campaign chairman Eatala Rajender against KCR. Rajender is seeking re-election from Huzurabad as well.
As part of his campaign, Prime Minister Modi addressed rallies for three days in a row, including at Kamareddy, Nirmal, Maheswaram and Karimnagar, besides holding a massive roadshow in the state capital. He had also attended a ‘BJP’s BC Atma Gourava Sabha’ (backward classes self-respect meeting) and a public meeting organised by the Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS).
During the campaign, the prime minister had said the Centre will soon form a committee, which will adopt all possible ways for empowering Madigas (an SC community) with regard to their demand of categorisation of Scheduled Castes.
During the campaign, the BJP promised to arrange free visits to the Ram temple in Ayodhya, while stressing on the necessity of electing a “double engine government” and pointed to the “family rule” of KCR and alleged corruption.
A host of senior BJP leaders — union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma, Maharashtra deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, former Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa and Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai took part in the campaign. Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde also campaigned for the BJP.
Here is all you need to know about voting in Telangana on November 30:
- Voters will exercise their franchise in 35,655 polling stations set up across the state. There are 3.26 crore eligible voters in the state.
- Polling will be held from 7 am to 5 pm in 106 constituencies and from 7 am to 4 pm in 13 left wing extremism (LWE) affected areas. At least 2,290 contestants are in the fray.
- More than 2.5 lakh staff will be engaged in poll duties, said chief electoral officer Vikas Raj. For the first time in Telangana, home voting facility was provided to the persons with disabilities and voters aged above 80.
- As on November 28, law enforcement agencies have seized cash, gold, liquor, freebies among others all worth about Rs 737 crore in the state ever since the model code of conduct came into force in the state on October 9.
- The EC has ordered all private establishments, including IT firms, to declare holiday on November 30 to enable employees to exercise their franchise.
(With PTI inputs)
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