Hyderabad, Oct 19 (IANS): Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Working President K.T. Rama Rao on Tuesday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress are colluding in the upcoming by-elections in Huzurabad Assembly constituency.
He claimed that the Congress party fielded a 'dummy' candidate, who is a non-local, only to benefit the BJP.
While speaking to the media, Rao said the two parties had joined hands in Huzurabad like they had done in Nizamabad and Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituencies during the 2019 elections.
The BJP and the Congress had colluded in these two constituencies leading to the defeat of the TRS. Both the Lok Sabha constituencies were won by the BJP, he added.
KTR, as Rama Rao is popularly known, exuded confidence that despite the conspiracy of the Congress and the BJP, the TRS would win the Huzurabad bypoll scheduled on October 30.
He challenged state Congress President A. Revanth Reddy to save the deposit of his party candidate in Huzurabad. He wondered why the Congress leader was not campaigning in the bypoll.
KTR also announced that he would not campaign for the bypoll and said he had not campaigned in Dubbaka and Nagarjuna Sagar bypolls. He said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao's tour to the Assembly constituency was not yet finalised.
KTR reiterated that Huzurabad bypoll is a minor election for the TRS. He said the victory of TRS was not news for the media as it was accustomed to the series of election victories of the TRS since 2018 Assembly polls.
he said the TRS would clearly win the Huzurabad seat. "We defeated a senior leader like Congress veteran Jana Reddy in Nagarjuna Sagar bypoll. Is BJP's Eatala Rajender a bigger leader than Jana Reddy," he asked.
Rajender is contesting the bypoll as a BJP candidate. He resigned from the TRS and the Huzurabad Assembly seat after he was dropped from state Cabinet following allegations of land grabbing.
KTR said Rajender was not telling people why he resigned. He also claimed that Rajender and the BJP have not accepted each other.