Sizzling poll frenzy hots up cold political scene

​Hyderabad: The Telangana State, which will soon be going to polls on December 7, was fronting decent election frenzy as all the candidates maintained a low-profile, except for the TRS, for the last two months but the campaign trail touched peaks across the State this week with everyone getting onto the battlefield.

With nomination formalities completed, candidates are racing against time to reach out and seek the support of voters in the crucial election. However, all they have is just two weeks at hand to attract voters by explaining their priorities for the constituency development, rival candidate failures, party manifesto etc. among other things.

Telangana elections will witness a triangular fight mainly between the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), People’s Front or grand alliance comprising the Congress, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and Communist Party of India (CPI), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). While the TRS announced 105 party candidates on September 6, the same is not the case with the rest. 

The grand alliance and the BJP were declaring their candidates, in many phases, right until the closure of filing of nominations (November 19). The TRS candidates have been on the field for the last two months during which time they made extensive attempts to cover most of the divisions under their constituency. Though a bit late, contestants from the People's Front and the BJP are already off the blocks, like sprinters in 100 metres dash in athletics.

Number of voters in constituencies in districts is just around 2 to 2.5 lakh, while in urban areas, especially constituencies in Hyderabad like Qutbullapur, Serilingampally, LB Nagar, Malkajgiri etc. it is in the range of 4.5 to 5.5 lakh voters.

Malkajgiri BJP candidate N Ramachander Rao exuded confidence of reaching out to all voters through different means before the end of campaign although he is left with just two-week’s time as on Thursday. “I am hopeful of reaching out directly to 40 per cent of voters in Malkajgiri through door-to-door campaign, meetings in colonies and also joggers and walkers in various parks. Also, the BJP functionaries and booth level activists are reaching out to each family parallelly. We would also leverage online/social media, text and voice messaging towards the end,” he said.

Ramachander Rao said that his daily campaign schedule begins at 7 am when he meets daily walkers, joggers in parks in Malkajgiri. It is followed by door-to-door visits, meetings in colonies and apartments, road shows which lasts up to 9 pm. The BJP leader said that he would be closeted with constituency leaders and key workers, his campaign team from 9 to 11 pm (two hours) every day to take stock of campaign process, areas to be covered, next day schedule etc.

Meanwhile, the Congress candidate from Thungathurthy Addanki Dayaker expressed confidence of directly reaching out to 60 to 70 per cent of voters considering the total number is less than 2.5 lakh votes. “It is taking three hours to cover a big village and we are able to cover six to seven villages’ including small ones. The Congress will hold a big public meeting to mobilise public from all villages at one place and spell out its plans for Thungathurthy. Our party cadre has also taken up the campaign job aggressively to ensure all villages are covered before the deadline ends,” he said.

When asked whether the TRS candidates are at advantage compared to People's Front contestants because of late campaigning, he said that villagers are actually getting sick of seeing TRS functionaries visiting their areas for the last two months in the name of campaign and hence they are revolting or booed out of villages. 

Many such videos of the TRS leaders facing the ire of villagers went viral on Whatsapp for last few weeks, the Congress leader reminded, adding that People's Front candidates are, however, getting good response from the same public during electioneering visits.