Hyderabad (Telangana): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has declared Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy as its contesting candidate for the byelection to the Munugode assembly constituency in Telangana. Already, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the main opposition Congress have announced their candidates. Battle lines are drawn for the high-stakes electoral fight which comes after TRS chief and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has stepped up his latest offensive mainly targetting the BJP.
The Munugode bypoll will be held on November 3 with results scheduled to be announced on November 6. The byelection became inevitable after sitting MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy resigned from the seat as well as from Congress party membership following differences with the party State chief Revanth Reddy.
Rajagopal Reddy late joined the BJP, which has given him the ticket to contest the bypoll now. He is going to file his nomination on Monday. BJP Telangana incharge Tarun Chug, party State president Bandi Sanjay and other top leaders are going to take part in the nomination rally. The BJP top brass has taken the Munugode bypoll very seriously in its bid to emerge as the major contender for power in the State in 2023 Assembly elections next year.
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The TRS fielding ex MLA Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy as its nominee while the Congress has announced Palvai Sravanthi Reddy, daughter of late Palvai Govardhan Reddy, as its candidate in Munugode bypoll. All the three parties are formulating strategies and making counter moves to take an upper hand in electioneering this time.
Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy won on Congress ticket from Munugode itself in 2018 Telangana Assembly elections. Later, he started openly criticising the Congress State leadership and making pro-BJP comments, eventually leading to his defection to the ruling party at the Centre. The Munugode election is the first election coming up after KCR announced his national party and renamed TRS as Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) after giving a call to unseat the BJP from power at the Centre.
