Cong, BRS and BJP brace for triangular contest in Jubilee Hills assembly by-poll in December
The by-poll for the Jubilee Hills assembly seat was necessitated following the death of sitting BRS lawmaker Maganti Gopinath on June 8 this year
Hyderabad: The upcoming by-election to Jubilee Hills assembly seat in Hyderabad has become a matter of prestige for all the major political parties in Telangana –Congress, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as it is the first major electoral battle after the last year’s general elections and is also crucial for its potential impact on the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls, scheduled to be held in December.
The by-poll for the Jubilee Hills assembly seat was necessitated following the death of sitting BRS lawmaker Maganti Gopinath on June 8 this year.
For the BRS, the by-election is very crucial because the party has been dominating almost all the constituencies falling under GHMC limits encompassing the entire Hyderabad and parts of adjoining Ranga Reddy districts, since the formation of Telangana state.
Out of 24 assembly constituencies falling under the GHMC limits, the BRS had won 16 seats, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) seven seats and the BJP had won one seat in the November 2023 assembly elections, though the party lost power to the Congress in the state.
The Congress could not win even a single seat then, but it could wrest the Secunderabad Cantonment assembly seat from the BRS in the by-election in June 2024. Four others - Gudem Mahipal Reddy from Patancheru, T Prakash Goud from Rajendranagar, Arekapudi Gandhi from Serilingampally, Danam Nagender from Khairatabad – also switched loyalties to the Congress, but technically, they are still in the BRS.
According to political analyst Ramu Suravajjula, the credit for the resounding victory for the BRS in most of the assembly constituencies in Hyderabad and its adjacent Cyberabad, especially in the upscale Jubilee Hills, Serilingampally and Kukatpally, comprising software employees, educated youth, entrepreneurs, business sections and other high profile urban voters, goes to BRS working president K T Rama Rao.
“In the last 10 years of BRS regime, KTR had a lot of traction among the urban electorate of Hyderabad by focussing on rapid infrastructure development of the city, including roads, flyovers, high-rise buildings and uninterrupted power and water supply to these areas,” he said.
Therefore, it is all the more important for KTR to see that the BRS wins the by-election to Jubilee Hills assembly seat. He has taken it as a matter of personal prestige, as any defeat for the party will have a dent in his personal image, Suravajjula said.
However, the recent developments like disclosure of the Justice P C Ghose Commission report on the irregularities in Kaleshwaram project, the exposure of alleged telephone tapping scandal and the ACB inquiry into the Formula-E car race scam caused a big setback to the BRS, creating a bad image for the party.
Yet, the BRS is keen on demonstrating that its influence in the constituency remains intact. KTR has taken it as a personal challenge and has begun holding division-wise meetings with local leaders, strategizing at the booth committee level.
On Monday, KTR held a detailed meeting with party functionaries of Vengalrao Nagar municipal division at Telangana Bhavan, instructing them on campaign strategies. “We must highlight how the BRS government had focussed on all-round development of Hyderabad. At the same time, we have to educate the voters about the unfulfilled promises of the Congress government,” he said.
KTR said the ruling party is spreading rumours of his imminent arrest in the Formula-E car race case, but said he was not afraid. He also accused the state government of demolishing thousands of houses using HYDRAA (Hyderabad Disaster Management and Assets Protection Agency).
The Congress, too, swung into the preparation mode for the Jubilee Hills by-poll. On Sunday, the Pradesh Congress Committee held a high-level strategy meeting under the leadership of chief minister Revanth Reddy to discuss the preparations.
A senior PCC leader familiar with the development said Revanth asked the party leaders to concentrate on exposing the corruption and failures of the previous BRS regime and highlight the welfare schemes being implemented by the current government.
“Let us face the by-election with a positive approach. We shall prepare booth-level plans, and widely publicize government schemes,” Revanth said, while asking the Congress workers to target KCR and KTR in their criticism, rather than late MLA Maganti Gopinath and his family.
The BJP hasn’t come up with any programme of action on the Jubilee Hills by-poll yet. “We shall go to the polls on our own, without any alliance with any other party,” BJP state president N Ramachander Rao said.
So far, no party has announced its candidate. There is a talk in the BRS that it might field Sunitha Gopinath wife of deceased MLA Gopinath, to garner sympathy votes. On the Congress side, the names of young leader Naveen Yadav, former MP Anjan Kumar Yadav, and former Hyderabad Mayor Bonthu Rammohan are under consideration.
