Telangana: Congress, BJP seek to regain lost ground in Huzurabad

HYDERABAD: The state presidents of the two national parties, BJP and Congress, are facing the challenge of winning the ensuing by-poll to Huzurabad assembly constituency.
A bypoll has become imminent as the seat fell vacant following the resignation of former minister Eatala Rajender being accepted by the assembly speaker. Eatala has won the Huzurabad seat in every election held since the constituency was created in delimitation in 2009.
For Bandi Sanjay, the BJP state president, the bypoll is crucial as he cannot afford to lose another election after the saffron party failed to retain its Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahbubnagar graduate MLC seat, failed to win even the Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam graduate MLC seat and also lost Nagarjuna Sagar bypoll.In fact, the party lost the deposit in Nagarjuna Sagar bypoll upsetting the huge expectations on it after its good performance in GHMC polls and Dubbak bypoll.
What is even more prestigious for Bandi Sanjay is the fact that Huzurabad constituency is part of his Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat and he wouldn’t want talks among the people that the state president of a national ruling party failed to ensure victory of a party candidate from an assembly segment in his own parliamentary constituency. However, political analysts said though it would be an initial embarrassment for Bandi Sanjay and BJP if the saffron party loses Huzurnagar bypoll, both the state president and the party will ultimately benefit as the party will expand its base in a constituency in which it hardly has any presence.
For the Congress state president, multiple challenges are in store ahead of the bypoll. The Congress is most likely to go to the hustings with a new state president for whom winning the first election after taking charge of the party would be top priority.
For a party which has been losing every election in the last few years, it won’t be an easy task for the new incumbent to regain the lost ground and prove his or her mettle in a bypoll.
On its part, a regional party like TRS is making all moves to continue its juggernaut and prove that the two national parties are no match to the ruling party in Telangana.