The Jubilee Hills by-election and local body elections have become a test for the ruling Congress, the main opposition BRS and the opposition BJP. Moreover, these elections turned out to be a prestigious to Congress, particularly Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to maintain his political clout.
The ruling Congress party gave early indications that the Jubilee Hills constituency by-election will be held before the local body elections, and the main opposition BRS party announced Maganti Sunitha, the wife of sitting MLA and late Maganti Gopinath, as its candidate. The ruling Congress party has changed its strategy and has closed the local elections before the by-election.
With the main opposition BRS candidate becoming clear, the ruling Congress party is sharpening its strategies and taking cautious steps in the selection of candidates. It has asked the three ministers appointed as in-charges for the Jubilee Hills by-election, Ponnam Prabhakar, Tummala Nage Swararao and Vivek Venkataswamy, to send proposals on the selection of the candidate. The party high command has given the task that these three ministers are responsible from the selection of the candidate to the victory.
The opposition BRS’s expectation that they will win with sympathy by giving tickets to the family members of a sitting MLA who dies will not be fulfilled, and the defeat of the BRS candidate in the by-election held in the Cantonment constituency is proof of this. Just as it won by fielding a strong candidate there, the ruling Congress party is working hard to field a strong candidate from all angles in the Jubilee Hills by-election.
It is known that even though no one won from Hyderabad city in the last assembly elections, the Congress won strategically by giving a ticket to Shri Ganesh, who had previously contested from the BJP and lost in the by-election held in the Cantonment seat. The Congress party is sharpening similar strategies.
On the other hand, since there are minority voters in this constituency that can affect the outcome, it came to an understanding with the MIM party in advance. The party has entered into a strategic agreement to support the Congress candidate without fielding an MIM candidate from here.
As part of the agreement, there were whispers in political circles that Azharuddin was selected as the Governor’s quota MLC candidate, replacing Amer Khan. Since the family background of the candidate selected by BRS is non-local, the Congress is working towards selecting a candidate keeping in mind the aspects of locality and social integration.