Warangal bypoll: First major political test for KCR

The upcoming bypoll to Warangal (SC) Lok Sabha seat in Telangana is being seen as a first major test of popularity of the ruling TRS and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao after last year's Assembly elections. The bye-election, scheduled to be held on November 21, would witness a multi-cornered contest with TRS nominee Pasunoori Dayakar, Congress candidate and former Union Minister Sarve Satyanarayana, NDA's P Devaiah, a US-based medical professional, Nalla Suryaprakash of YSR Congress and the Left-sponsored Gali Vinod Kumar in fray. Aiming to retain the seat, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has appointed state ministers as in-charges of different Assembly segments. Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari, whose resignation necessitated the bypoll, has been campaigning extensively for the victory of the TRS candidate. Srihari exuded confidence that the party nominee would win with a massive margin on the back of welfare and development programmes implemented by the state government. TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao would campaign for the by-election later this month. The Congress suffered a setback with a fire tragedy in the house of its candidate Sircilla Rajaiah in which his daughter-in-law and three grandsons were charred to death, on the last day of filing of nominations. Rajaiah, his wife and son were subsequently arrested and the incident forced Congress to replace Rajaiah with Sarve Satyanarayana. "This is definitely a setback," Telangana Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy admitted last week after the incident at Rajaiah's house. The name of Rajaiah was announced after AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh held talks with party leaders and workers from Warangal district. .