Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is leaving no stone unturned to win the forthcoming by-elections to Huzurabad assembly seat, which has become a matter of prestige for the party.
In the last few days, every decision taken by KCR has been linked to Huzurabad in some or the other way, indicating how serious he is to win the seat, which has fallen vacant due to the resignation of sitting MLA and former health minister Eatala Rajender, who resigned from the TRS and joined the BJP.
Soon after Rajender quit the assembly seat, the KCR government transferred several officials including the local municipal commissioner and the local police officials who had earlier helped Rajender.
On the party side, the chief minister lured several of Rajender’s followers and prevented them from defecting to the BJP.
On Friday, KCR appointed Banda Srinivas, a local Dalit leader from Huzurabad, as the chairman of Telangana State Scheduled Castes Development Corporation, obviously with a view to attract the SC voters.
Srinivas, who had been actively associated with the Congress party in the past and taken part in various social movements, had been a close follower of Rajender till recently.
He had been an active worker in the Telangana movement.
By giving him a key post, KCR ensured that the SCs would not rally behind Rajender in Huzurabad, which has a sizeable number of Dalit voters.
Very recently, the chief minister announced the launch of Dalit Bandhu scheme at an expenditure of Rs 1200 crore and declared the scheme would be taken up on pilot basis from Huzurabad, a decision which he strongly defended.
What is more, he also announced that an additional Rs 1500 to Rs 2000 crore would be spent in the Huzurabad constituency on the scheme.
He said the scheme was definitely aimed at gaining political mileage in the by-elections.
Besides, the KCR government has been pumping in crores of rupees to take up developmental works in Huzurabad district.
An amount of Rs 35 crore was sanctioned for Huzurabad urban development, Rs 10 crore for drinking water services and Rs 25 crores for developmental works in the wards.
Another Rs 100 crore are said to be sanctioned for various other works before the announcement of by-poll schedule.