HYDERABAD: Congress candidate Palvai Sravanthi put up a good fight while facing tough challenges from the TRS and the BJP, which had deployed all their ‘resources’ at Munugode.
Given the way various factors at play in the constituency, the Congress leader was able to get nearly 24,000 votes in the byelection. In 2014, while contesting as independent she had secured 27,441 (16 per cent share) votes.
“From the beginning I had maintained that the byelection is being driven by money, official machinery and liquor. The TRS and BJP deployed all their resources. It definitely was not a fair election,” Sravanthi told ‘Deccan Chronicle’.
According to her, the fake news which went viral on the day of polling of her purportedly meeting K. Chandrashekar Rao had an adverse impact. “By the time we refuted the claims, the damage was done. Many traditional voters of the Congress were ‘bought’ and there was backstabbing within. I faced different kinds of challenges, but it’s a moral victory,” she added.
With the experience she had as a campaign manager since 1999, when her father Palvai Govardhan Reddy was contesting from the constituency, Sravanthi started her campaign as early as in September and covered 140 of the 156 villages in the constituency. Her style of campaign and door-to-door visits attracted women. In hindsight, her presence and the response she was getting drew the ire of her opponents.
Incidentally, even as the election date was drawing near, the party’s state leadership’s focus shifted to the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Most of the mandal incharges in Munugode were given additional responsibilities of managing the yatra. The star campaigner and Bhongir MP Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy also played spoilsport by staying away.
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