• Congress intensifies campaign for Nagarjuna Sagar by-polls
• Majority of women, youth will vote for Jana Reddy: Congress

Hyderabad, April 8, 2021: The Congress party on Thursday claimed that it was getting a tremendous response from all sections of the society in Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly by-elections in favour of its candidate K. Jana Reddy.

“People are turning up in large numbers to attend the public meetings and rallies being organised by the Congress party in Nagarjuna Sagar by-polls. We are getting tremendous response from the people, especially women, in the street corner meetings and door-to-door campaign. We are confident that a majority of women and youth would vote in favour of Jana Reddy on April 17,” former minister and ex-Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir told reporters after having an interactive meeting with local residents in Marrepally village of Anamula Mandal on Thursday.

Shabbir Ali said that the Congress party has intensified the election campaign and more focus was being laid on the door-to-door campaigns and holding interactive sessions with the voters. He informed that women, especially burkha-clad Muslim women, were participating in large numbers in the Congress meetings. “Instead of simply delivering the speeches, we are requesting the locals to express their grievances. This approach has helped us in exposing the failures of the TRS Government,” he said.

The Congress leader claimed that people were vexed with the TRS Government and they were not in a position to digest the false propaganda being spread by TRS ministers and other leaders. “Each and every family is badly affected due to rising prices of fuel and essential commodities. Housewives are unable to run their homes due to rising prices and a decline in family income. Many people have either lost their jobs or their incomes got reduced and those who completed their education have no job opportunities. The TRS Govt has only created hype around welfare schemes while in reality, the lives of common people have become miserable ever since the TRS party came to power,” he said.

Shabbir Ali said that the Congress party has exposed the failures of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and his government. “While CM KCR is living a lavish lifestyle from his palace Pragathi Bhavan, common people are still waiting for the delivery of double bedroom houses. KCR has accommodated about 40 members of his family including son, daughter, son-in-law and nephew on various posts. But the educated youth have no employment opportunities,” he said while citing the instance of a youth from Marrepally village who is jobless despite completing his Ph.D. in Economics.

The Congress leader said that the minorities, Dalits, STs and BCs appear unanimous in electing Jana Reddy from Nagarjuna Sagar constituency. He said this time KCR’s money power and misuse of official machinery might not work in his favour. “The TRS leaders were trying to lure voters by spending over Rs. 100 crore. But the people of Nagarjuna Sagar will not sell their votes for any cost. This time they’ve decided to punish TRS and BJP for their wrong policies and they will ensure the victory of Jana Reddy with a majority of not less than 50,000 votes,” he said.

Shabbir Ali ridiculed the claims being made by TRS Ministers during the by-poll campaign. “Ministers including Jagadish Reddy, Mahmood Ali, Talasani Srinivas Yadav and Srinivas Goud are campaigning hard to protect themselves from being dropped from the State Cabinet after the declaration of results. CM KCR already knows that Jana Reddy is winning this election. For the same reason, he had assigned the campaigning duty to selective ministers so as to get an excuse to drop them from the cabinet next month,” he said.

Shabbir Ali expressed confidence that Jana Reddy would register a historic win and the politics of Telangana would change for the better after the declaration of results on 2nd May.