Hyderabad: As the campaign picks up in the by-election for the Huzurnagar assembly seat, equations are changing.
While the Communist Party of India (CPI) has extended support to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) headed by M Kodandaram is supporting the Congress.
And the Telangana Telugu Desam has requested the support of CPI (Marxist). It may be recalled that the CPI(M) candidate P Sekhar Rao’s nomination was rejected and so the CPI (M) is not in the fray.
Telangana TD president L. Ramana held preliminary discussions with Telangana CPI(M) secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram on this issue. Veerabhadram said that the party will take a decision after discussing it.
In fact, the CPM had proposed to field its candidate a joint contestant from the Left Front. However, the CPI wanted its candidate to be the joint Left Front candidate in the bypoll.
With no agreement in sight, the CPM went ahead by fielding its candidate, whose nomination was later rejected, leaving the party out of the electoral fray. The CPI, meanwhile, decided to back the TRS candidate.
Congress leaders led by Gudur Narayana Reddy met TJS president M. Kodandaram on Wednesday and sought his party’s support for their candidate.
The negotiations were successful and the TJS will support the Congress candidate Padmavathi Reddy.
Speaking to the media, Mr Narayana Reddy thanked Mr Kodandaram for extending the support.
He said that Telangana state is facing severe agricultural, financial and health crises and in this context the Huzurnagar by-election could make a huge impact not only on the present government but also on the overall political scenario.
Meanwhile, Telangana TD leaders said that their party’s national president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu could campaign for his party’s candidate.
During the Telangana Assembly elections last year, Naidu and the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi had campaigned in several constituencies.
Instead of helping his party candidates, experts claim that Mr Naidu’s campaign had actually helped the TRS to win several Assembly seats.
Even now TRS leaders say if Mr Naidu campaigns in the Huzurnagar by-election it will only help their candidate.