Former Telangana health minister Eatala Rajender has been virtually fighting a lone battle for retaining his assembly seat from Huzurabad constituency in the October 30 by-elections.
Though state BJP leaders like Bandi Sanjay, Vijayashanti, D K Aruna, D Arvind and others are campaigning for Eatala in the by-polls, they have not been getting much response from the people, as the party doesn’t have much presence in Huzurabad.
Eatala is banking purely on his personal image, rather than the party support.
At every public meeting, he is explaining what he had done to the constituency and how he was hounded out from the TRS by its president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
The State BJP leaders are trying to invoke the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central schemes, but the people are not able to gel with them. This is creating trouble for Eatala.
Apparently realising that they are not able to attract the masses with their speeches, the BJP leaders have tone down their campaign for Eatala.
According to the latest information, even the central leaders who initially promised Eatala that they would campaign for him, have dropped out now.
Union home minister Amit Shah was expected to address a huge rally at Huzurabad on October 26 or 27, but after taking the feedback of the local leaders, he cancelled his visit.
Even Rajnath Singh, who was also expected to campaign, dropped out of the campaign.
Only Union minister who is campaigning now and then in Huzurabad is G Kishan Reddy, but he, too, has confined to only a few areas.
The BJP leaders are not able to answer the questions from the TRS on the increasing petrol and gas prices.
It remains to be seen how Eatala would overcome this drawback and win the election.