Posted: Updated – 12:23 AM, Wednesday – November 2
High-decibel, no-holds-barred campaign in Munugode parliamentary constituency on 3 November ends on Tuesday
Nargonda: The high-pitched, no-holds-barred election campaign for the Nov. 3 Munugode parliamentary constituency ended on Tuesday as the Bharatiya Janata Party used violence as the last straw to try to gain the upper hand.
The campaign until Tuesday saw largely a peaceful campaign, barring a biting exchange of accusations and counter-charges between all parties. On Sunday, however, the scale was heavily tilted towards Telangana Rashtra Samithi, after Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao arrived in Benjarrigada and launched a verbal surgical strike against the BJP, directly targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and tearing up the Saffron Party Attempts to overthrow the TRS government.
The chief minister called on the people of Munugode to make history to help him get the Bharat Rashtra Samithi juggernaut rolling from their constituencies, and called on the four MLAs to step on the stage that the BJP was trying to take over, while declaring that Telangana’s self-esteem was not up to the cheers of the large crowd. The release made national headlines.
The outright onslaught has clearly thrown the BJP off balance, and the rush to seize the momentum reached violent levels on Tuesday when the party’s workers launched an attack on a TRS rally that killed MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, MLA Peddireddy Sudarshan Reddy Several injured and Mulugu Zilla Parishad chairman Jagadish.
Videos of the leaders, which bleed profusely in the aftermath of the conflict, were widely shared with party leaders, including TRS working chairman KT Rama Rao, condemning the BJP’s tactics. A car in the convoy of BJP leader Eatala Rajender was also damaged in clashes between BJP and TRS supporters.
Earlier in the day, during Koosukuntla Prabhakar Rao’s election campaign, Rama Rao conducted roadshows in Choutuppal, Chandur, Gattuppal, Sansthan Narayanpur and Munugode attracting huge crowds, while Finance Minister T Harish Rao also took to the road in Marriguda The campaign and Nampally have been cheering the TRS crowd.
On the other side of the political wall, BJP candidate Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy has Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, BJP State President Bandi Sanjay, MLA Eatala Rajender and M Raghunandan Rao campaigning for him. Interestingly, Rajgopal Reddy’s campaign ended without the expected fireworks, with none of the BJP’s national leaders appearing at the meeting held in the constituency. Even a public meeting of BJP country president JP Nadda scheduled for Monday was canceled.
On Thursday, 241,000 voters in the precinct will cast their ballots at 298 polling stations, which have been scheduled to webcast the voting process. There are 105 polling stations classified as critical polling stations, and 1,192 polling station officers have been selected in addition to more than 300 reserve personnel. A total of 3,366 national police officers and 15 companies of the central paramilitary force were deployed.
