Bandi Sanjay, Kishan Reddy stay away from campaign, BJP loses sheen in Munugode

HYDERABAD: The BJP suddenly found itself in an embarrassing situation with its two senior leaders staying away from the campaign for the Munugode Assembly by-election. The party nominee Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, who is ready to spend any amount (of effort) to win the seat and "gift" it to Amit Shah, is now caught in a piquant situation. While Rajgopal Reddy himself was told that his admirers were identifying him with hand symbol, he was too embarrassed when some voters promised to back his candidacy and "surely vote for hand".

Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Telangana State president, all of a sudden, called off his campaign plans and went to Delhi. Union Minister G Kishan Reddy "broke his leg" and the fracture caused him to be immobile. Though Kishan Reddy went to Delhi and also participated in a handful of programmes, even after "suffering an injury" and undergoing tests in AIG Hospital, he began "feeling the pain of it" only after the diagnosis was done and it was found that he had fractured his leg.

With the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) firing all its cylinders by deploying all its ministers and MLAs and leaders to each and every nook and cranny of the constituency to woo the voters, the BJP is groping in the dark on how many of its leaders and cadres could be deployed to work with the electors of Munugode. It has given a timetable to its MLAs Raghunandan Rao and Rajender, while Raja Singh is in jail on charges of inciting communal discord.

The BJP actually wanted to add one more R to the triple R in the Telangana Assembly and make it a "Quadruple R". However, its dreams do not seem to be anywhere close to realisation. For, the TRS successfully highlighted, rather injected into the minds of voters, the bagging of Rs.18,000-crore mining contract from the BJP Government at the Centre, just six months ago by his own admission.

In fact, the TRS successfully cornered him so much that the number 18,000 has turned out to be a taboo for anyone now.

With the two main leaders, Bandi Sanjay and Kishan Reddy, taking a break, the desire of "breaking a leg" hit a roadblock. The party, which sought the transfer of Rachakonda Commissioner of Police Mahesh Bhagawat, inadvertently threw its hands up into the air about fighting the battle.