A gung-ho ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has started gearing up for the next round of electoral battle to further strengthen itself at the grassroots level — the municipal corporation elections in Warangal and Khammam cities.
With the State election commission scheduling polling in the two corporations of March 6, the TRS leaders went into a huddle to chalk out strategy to capture both the civic bodies. Warangal is the second biggest corporation after the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and the heart of Telagnana region.
Deputy CM Kadiyam Srihari who chaired a meeting of the party leaders in Warangal on Monday exuded confidence that the TRS will emerge stronger by winning all the 58 seats of the corporation.
The confidence emanates from the fact that the TRS had recently won Warangal lok Sabha seat with a huge margin and also bagged the legislative Council seat from the local bodies in the district.
The polls to the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation with 58 seats and Khammam Municipal Corporation with 50 seats has come at an opportune moment for the TRS and its supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao as the opposition is completely decimated.
TDP, which was once the strongest party in Warangal is still reeling under the twin blows of the defeat in GHMC and defection of many of its MlAs including the Assembly floor leader E Dayakar Rao who also hails from Warangal.
BJP’s situation is still worse and Congress has lost most of the grounds to the TRS. KCR’s son K Taraka Rama Rao, who successfully led the party in GHMC, will be again in command of the party’s strategy for Warangal.
In Khammam, which was the citadel of the left till a few years ago, party’s campaign was likely to be led by another powerful minister and KCR’s nephew T Harish Rao who had led the party’s campaign single handed in Narayankhed Assembly by elections in Medak district successfully.
like the other parts of Telangana, in Khammam also the TRS made some in roads riding on the shoulder of leaders who defected from other parties. In case of Khammam the party will be relying on leaders like Tummala Nageshwara Rao, who came from TDP and Jalgam Prasad Rao who came from Congress.
For the Congress too Khammam will be a battle of prestige as it is the home of Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, the working president of Telangana Congress.
As the GHMC defeat has left the Telangana Congress Committee president Uttam Kumar Reddy and many others in the party badly bruised, the prestige of Vikramrka will be at stake in Khammam.
In a way Warangal and Khammam Corporation poll will be the last major electoral battle for the TRS before the 2019 general elections.
With the announcement of the election schedule the filing of nomination papers began today in both the cities and the Achampet municipal council in Mehbubnagar. After closing of nomination on February 24, the last date to withdraw from the contest would be on February 26. Results will be announced on March 9.