The dust has settled in Munugode but, the scores are yet to be settled. A high-decibel campaign has come to a screeching halt in this constituency which will go for a by-poll on Thursday. For months now, the Munugode assembly constituency, which is a two-hour drive from Hyderabad, has been the flashpoint for political parties. It has all the ingredients required to dish out an exciting electoral recipe. There was a sting operation commissioned by the ruling party to bust an alleged attempt to poach its MLAs using hundreds of crores. Subsequently, the tranche of leaks to the media included telephonic conservations, video clips and screenshots of WhatsApp messages allegedly between BJP supporters and its leaders. Politicians switching sides, violent clashes, provocative speeches and circulation of fake documents were integral to the campaign.
Munugode was traditionally a stronghold of the communists with CPI winning the seat multiple times in alliance with other parties. After the bifurcation in 2014, TRS captured the assembly segment in the elections held that year. However, in the 2018 assembly elections, the seat fell into the lap of the Congress despite the party performing abysmally state-wide. The legislator, Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy, who was representing the constituency resigned from the Congress and the MLA’s post and joined BJP this year.
The by-election has become a high stakes one for all the three parties-- the BJP, Congress and the TRS as the outcome may have an impact on the state elections scheduled to be held later next year. With two high-profile by-election wins in the last two years, the BJP is looking to exploit another victory to build a perception of being a strong alternative to the regional party TRS. The ruling party, which wants to stop the BJP in its tracks, has deployed a large contingent of ministers, MLAs and party leaders. They are backed by Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), a political consultancy firm usually attributed to strategist Prashant Kishor. The TRS wants to once again lap up the seat and send out a message that they are still in the driver's seat. Congress is struggling to recover what was their constituency. The polls now stands to be a fierce competition between TRS and BJP. On the online turf, clashes between supporters of the two parties have intensified with creative posts and memes.
The money muscle has been flexed by the parties; enticing voters with cash, feasts, gifts and so on. The party and its candidates have left no stone unturned to reach out to every community in the constituency. In the last few weeks, war of words has become a norm and the hotly contested seat has the involvement or monitoring by big names like Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and BJP top leader Amit Shah.
Though the results will be out on November 6, the BJP has, to some extent, managed to achieve what they set out to. In the 2018 elections, BJP stood third in Munugode with the candidate, Manohar Reddy winning 12,000 votes for 1.98 lakh votes polled. Today, BJP’s fortunes have improved drastically in a constituency which was aligned towards the Left. The BJP’s move to induct Raj Gopal Reddy and necessitating by-polls has knelled a death blow to the Congress, their traditional rivals, who look rudderless having lost their leader, a section of cadres and also likely, a chunk of their voters having been written off in the polls. The TRS, dedicating all its energies and resources to the poll, has given an impression to the electorate that the BJP is making them slog for a win. The election will go down in the history of Telangana as probably the most expensive election. But for whom will it cost dearly? It will be known on Sunday.
