The stage is set for polling for the bye-election to the Munugode Assembly seat in Telangana on Thursday, November 3. Authorities have made all the arrangements for polling in the constituency in Nalgonda district. A total of 2,41,855 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the bye-election, at 298 polling stations. The polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. The bye-poll was necessitated after sitting MLA Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy resigned from the Congress to join the BJP in August. Raj Gopal is now contesting on a BJP ticket, and TRS has fielded former MLA Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy, while Congress has fielded Palvai Sravanthi Reddy, daughter of former MP Palvai Govardhan Reddy. The counting of votes would be taken up on November 6.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vikas Raj said that sending bulk SMS and automated campaigning through phone have been barred after 6 pm on November 3. The election authorities have also deployed special teams to monitor messages on social media. Non-voters have been directed to leave the constituency. Special teams have been deployed to verify the presence of non-voters in function halls, hotels and other places. “About 45 police teams and 37 revenue teams have been deployed to curb the number of outsiders in the constituency,” a press release from the CEO’s office said.
Of the 298 polling stations, 122 fall under the Rachakonda police commissionerate, and Rachakonda Commissioner of Police Mahesh Bhagwat said that security has been geared up in critical polling locations. Further, six companies of the Central Armed Police Force have been deployed across the polling locations. Overall, as many as 105 polling stations have been identified as critical. A total of 3,366 state police personnel and 15 companies of central forces have been deployed, according to IANS.
CEO Vikas Raj said that 198 police teams are on the ground to check any unauthorised movement of men and material. As many as 51 static surveillance teams and flying squads were deployed on the ground to check model code of conduct (MCC) violations. As part of the election process, 821 persons with criminal antecedents had been bound over and 111 belt shops (unauthorised outlets of licensed liquor shops) shut.
The high-voltage campaign concluded on Tuesday evening with the leaders of three major parties making a last-minute bid to woo the voters. On the last day, there were many roadshows and public meetings. The day also saw a clash between workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). Barring a couple of incidents, the campaigning activities concluded peacefully.
Munugode is witnessing a three-cornered contest, whose outcome is expected to be significant ahead of the next year's Assembly elections. There are a total of 47 candidates in the fray but the main contest is among three major players — TRS, BJP and Congress. The BJP had earlier won the Dubbak and Huzurabad bye-polls, wresting them from TRS in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
The TRS had deployed about 80 leaders including ministers, MPs and MLAs for intensive campaigning. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao addressed two public meetings in Munugode with the first being in August, a day before union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed a rally to welcome Raj Gopal Reddy into BJP. TRS working president KT Rama Rao, and state Finance and Health Minister T Harish Rao also addressed a couple of meetings and road shows to bolster the ruling party's campaign.
TRS and Congress have alleged that Raj Gopal Reddy resigned from Congress and joined BJP for a contract worth Rs 18,000 crore awarded by the BJP-led union government to his family-owned company. The BJP candidate, however, denied these allegations and claimed that he resigned for the development of the constituency as it was neglected by the TRS government. The BJP was on the defensive as TRS leaders also slammed it for seeking votes without the union government sanctioning any projects for Telangana in the last eight years.
The arrest of three alleged agents of BJP in Hyderabad last week while trying to buy four MLAs of TRS caused huge embarrassment to the party in the midst of the campaign. One of the TRS MLAs Pilot Rohit Reddy, who had tipped off the police, claimed that the accused offered Rs 100 crore to him and Rs 50 crore each to three other MLAs to join BJP. The BJP called the arrests a drama by TRS due to fear of defeat in Munugode and even moved the high court seeking a CBI probe.
The Congress party's campaign was led by its state president Revanth Reddy. The party's campaign in the last few days was affected as party leaders were busy with the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi in other parts of the state. The Congress leaders trained guns on both TRS and BJP by highlighting their alleged failures in the state and the union government.
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With IANS inputs