Triangular contest in Huzurabad bypoll in Telangana
Karimnagar: The Huzurabad assembly constituency in Telangana will witness a triangular contest among the candidates of the ruling TRS, BJP and Congress in the bypoll scheduled to be held on October 30.
Thirty candidates, including BJP's Eatala Rajender, TRS nominee Gellu Srinivas Yadav and Venkat Balmoor of Congress, are in the fray after the withdrawal of candidatures came to an end on Wednesday.
The bypoll has been necessitated by the resignation of Eatala Rajender in June this year after his removal from the state cabinet over allegations of land grabbing.
Rajender, who dismissed the allegations, joined BJP and is seeking re-election.
Rajender has been a senior leader who won from Huzurabad, on behalf of TRS, since 2004. He served as the leader of TRS in undivided Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He held the portfolios of finance and health in the TRS regime led by K Chandrasekhar Rao after the formation of separate Telangana in 2014.
Srinivas Yadav is a students' leader of the TRS, while Venkat Balmoor (Congress) is state president of NSUI.
Rajender has been touring the constituency since June-July and is now conducting a hectic campaign. BJP is expected to dispatch its senior leaders for canvassing in the run-up to the poll.
The ruling TRS has been conducting a vigorous campaign led by its senior leader and state Finance Minister T Harish Rao.
Senior Congress leader and MLC T Jeevan Reddy and other leaders have been campaigning for Balmoor.
The by-election assumes significance as the ruling TRS is keen on demonstrating that its dominance in state politics continues unchallenged.
It is crucial for the BJP as the party aims at emerging as the alternative to the TRS in the 2023 Assembly elections. The counting of votes would be taken up on November 2.
