Clashes Erupt Between TRS & BJP in Telangana's Munugode During Last Leg of Bypoll Campaign

Clashes erupted between Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) and BJP in Telangana?s Munugode on Tuesday during the last leg of campaigning for the high-stakes bypoll in the constituency.

TRS and BJP workers have reportedly been injured in the clashes.

Over 2.41 lakh voters are set to exercise their franchise in the bypoll to Munugode Assembly constituency in Telangana on November 3, an election that is expected to influence the future course of state politics in the run-up to next year?s Legislative Assembly polls.

The bypoll in this backward constituency in Nalgonda district is crucial for all the three major parties in the state – the ruling TRS, opposition BJP and the Congress.

The TRS, recently renamed as Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), aims to demonstrate its dominance in state politics and go national with a big win here.

The message the K Chandrashekar Rao-led party would like to send at the national level – it can take on the BJP and win. A drubbing in the bypoll would hamper not only its national plans but also embolden the opposition ahead of the assembly polls.

The BJP, meanwhile, hopes to give a push to its plans to emerge as the alternative to BJP with a victory in Munugode.

The party is on a high following its victories in Dubbak and Huzurabad Assembly bypolls and also the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election during the last two years.

The total number of eligible voters in the predominantly-rural Munugode Assembly constituency in Nalgonda district, about 85 kms from Hyderabad, is over 2.41 lakh – 1,21,720 male and 1,20,128 female.

Over 60 per cent of the electorate reportedly belong to the backward classes.

A high-octane campaign, unprecedented in many ways, has been witnessed for the bypoll ever since Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy quit Congress and also as MLA in August and joined the BJP.

TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao addressed a public meeting on Sunday last when he referred to the recent ?TRS MLAs poaching case? and accused the BJP of ?trying to buy? 20 or 30 MLAs of his party and topple his government.

Munugode had been a Left stronghold with CPI winning the segment in 1985, 1989, 1994, 2004 and 2009.

Campaigning will end this evening. Counting of votes would be taken up on November 6.

(With PTI inputs)

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