3Ps of KCR makes opposition weak in Nagarjuna Sagar bypoll

Hyderabad: TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao's 3Ps strategy in the by-election to Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly constituency has put the main opposition Congress and BJP in a big fix. Poll Management, Poaching, and Performance of the TS government are the part of main poll strategies adopted by the ruling TRS to retain the Sagar seat in the bypoll to be held on April 17.

Though the Congress and BJP were ahead of TRS in the campaign before the announcement of the bypoll scheduled by the Election Commission of India last month, the TRS surpassed the two rival parties and moving fast in the election management soon after the notification issued on March 23.

KCR was already busy holding regular meetings with the leaders deputed to oversee the poll managements in the Assembly segment. TRS legislators B Suman, A Jeevan Reddy, and others were entrusted with the responsibility of holding regular mandal level meetings of the TRS.

Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy was looking after the party poll campaign of the entire Assembly constituency. Leaders said that KCR was receiving feedback on the party winning prospects on a daily basis from different sources including private agencies engaged to conduct the surveys.

Based on the outcome, the TRS chief was devising mandal-wise poll strategy with and instructed the party second in command KT Rama Rao to execute the plan of action.

"In 2018 Assembly elections, TRS sitting MLA N Narasimhaiah defeated Congress senior leader K Jana Reddy by 7,700 votes. In the by-election, the party targeted to win the seat by more than 20,000 votes.

In this direction, the TRS prepared poll management," said a senior leader. The TRS already started poaching leaders from the rival parties to weaken the BJP and Congress before the by-elections. Senior BJP leaders K Anjayai Yadav and a few senior leaders from the ST community from BJP already switched loyalties.

Party sources said that senior Congress leaders from the poll constituency were already contacted by the TRS leadership and invited to join the ruling party. It is expected that a group of Congress leaders would join TRS in April second week during the intensified poll campaign.

A special action plan was also prepared to take up a mass campaign about the TRS government's achievements and the schemes targeting mainly the farmers and Yadav, Scheduled Castes and Tribal communities who were constituted about 50 per cent of the total 2 lakh voters in the assembly segment.

Special Social Media teams were also created for the extensive poll campaigns on government welfare and developmental programmes in the Sagar constituency. A state-level TRS social media wing team was working out to counter the anti-government campaign taken up by the two opposition parties.