HYDERABAD: The vote transfer ability of the pre-poll alliance between the TRS and Left parties will be tested in the Munugode bypoll. The BJP and the Congress are trying to divide the Left vote bank by highlighting ‘failures’ of the TRS government.
The non-resolution of Podu lands issue over the last eight years, suppression of unions in TSRTC and Singareni Collieries, among others, against which the Left parties opposed with the TRS earlier. will form the basis of attacking the alliance.
While the CPI publicly supported the TRS in Munugode on Saturday, the CPI(M) is expected to announce its support soon. The Left parties claim they have the support of 25,000 voters in Munugode that can make or mar the prospects of candidates.
In the 2018 Assembly elections, the CPI supported Congress candidate Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, who won by 22,552 votes. Rajgopal Reddy had polled, 97,239 votes (vote share of 49 per cent), his nearest rival TRS candidate K. Prabhakar Reddy had secured 74,687 (38 per cent vote share). The vote share difference was 11 basis points. The TRS leadership now hopes to bridge this vote share deficit with the support from Left parties.
Local Congress and BJP leaders are in touch with their Left parties colleagues who are upset with the pre-poll alliance. The national parties have called on workers from the Left parties to vote as per their ‘conscience’ to defeat the TRS. They will point to the TRS once humiliating Left parties as ‘outdated’ and tackling strikes by employees unions with an iron hand.
They will also highlight the TRS government removing Dharna Chowk near Indira Park, known to be the “Left parties adda” to protest on issues concerning the poor and needy, farmers, employees. It was reinstated only after the High Court intervened.
Being highlighted is the TRS government’s suppression of the TSRTC strike in 2019, allegedly leading to death of a few employees, scrapping employees unions and elections in TSRTC, failure to fulfil promises made to Singareni Collieries workers in the 2015 elections. Congress and BJP leaders are also citing the TRS decision to abolish VRO system in revenue department causing hardships to thousands of working VROs, removing field assistants of MNREGA scheme and taking them back into jobs after months of agitation.
Police foiling the week-long deeksha of irrigation project oustees in Munugode constituency and arresting them, hours before CM’s arrival in Munugode on Saturday, have become a weapon for the Congress and BJP to lash out at the TRS-Left alliance and divide Left vote bank.
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