Medak by-election today

HYDERABAD: The stage is set for the battle royal between the Telugu Desam, the Congress, and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti in the Medak by-poll which would be held on Tuesday.
The by-election was necessitated fol-lowing the death of former higher education minister Karanam Ramachandra Rao, and it had become a prestige issue for all the main parties. The three main contenders in the by-elec-tion — the TDP, the Congress and the Telangana Rasthra Samithi (TRS) — have not spared any efforts to elbow out their rivals.
The election turned prestigious as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was fighting its first elec-tion after the recent power tariff hike.The TDP, in an attempt to garner the sympathy vote, had fielded K Uma Devi, wife of K Ramachandra Rao.
Uma is a political novice. The TDP electioneering centred around the development of the state, particularly the region, achieved during the TDP rule. On the last day of the campaign, the TDP president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu attracted huge crowds, and the TDP leaders feel that this had made the by-election more difficult for the other two con-tenders, the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
The Congress, fighting the by-election on the plank of free power supply to the farm-ers, had also highlighted the lack of develop-ment and suicides of farmers and weavers during the TDP rule. The free power issue, however, turned out to be an asset for the TDP for criticising the Congress by highlighting it to the people that the scheme was not implemented in any of the 14 Congress-ruled states.
The TRS campaign, on the other hand, cen-tred around the separate Telangana plank and the injustice meted out to the region at the hands of Andhra rulers, and particularly under the TDP. All the three parties had utilised the services of their stalwarts to at-tract the people. Senior Congress leaders like party president M Satyanarayana Rao, oppo-sition leader Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, Baga Reddy, Mallikarjun and others campaigned for the party candidate P Sashidhar Reddy.
Mirza Irshad Baig, AICC secretary (in-charge of AP), had been camping in Medak to look after the party affairs. TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao and Telangana Sadhana Samithi (TSS) president A Narendra have attempted to cash in on the separate Telangana sentiment. The TRS is also banking on the candidature of Pochaiah, the lone BC candidate in the fray, to garner BC votes.
From the TDP side, district in-charge minister T Devender Goud and other leaders like health minister N Janardhan Reddy, tourism minister T Srinivas Yadav, and panchayat raj minister P Srinivas Reddy campaigned on behalf of the party candidate. The constituency has about 1.70 lakh voters. The results would be declared on June 4.