LS by-elections in Karimnagar, Bobbili tomorrow

Hyderabad, Dec 3: All political parties are keenly awaiting for outcome of the results in two Lok Sabha by-elections in Andhra Pradesh, Karimnagar in Telangana and Bobbili in Vizianagaram district, scheduled tomorrow.

The Karimnagar bypoll was caused by the resignation of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) Chief K Chandrasekhara Rao and the Bobbili by-poll by the death of Telugu Desam Party's sitting MP K Paidithalli Naidu.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission had ordered all outsiders to leave both the constituencies.

During election campaign, the Congress deployed several ministers to oversee the campaign.

The TRS Chief had already declared that the Karimnagar bypoll would be a referendum on Telangana issue.

However, both the TDP and the Congress were trying their best to wrest the seat from the TRS as they wanted to show that Chandrasekhara Rao's argument that the people of Telangana wanted a separate state was a politically motivated statement.

The BJP, which declared its willingness to support the formation of separate Telangana state, however rejected the TRS request for support and fielded its candidate Ch Vidyasagara Rao.

The BJP also tried to move a Private Member's Bill for the formation of seperate Telangana state in the Parliament.

Meanwhile, Union Government's decision to make it statutory for beedi factories to print skull and bones pictorial warning on the beedi packets had ignited yet another stormy debate among the political parties during the election campaigns.

But to allay the fears of the beedi workers, Union Minister of State for Health Panabaka Lakshmi yesterday announced in Hyderabad that the Centre had decided to postpone the decision of implementing the pictorial warning, which was to come into force from February 1, 2007.

She said the Centre had decided to appoint a committee to look into the issue.

In Karimnagar district alone, about 2.5 lakh beedi workers are there. The Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency has an electorate of 14,19,695, out of which 7,15,122 are women and 7,03,863 men.

Following this issue, Chandrasekhara Rao had alleged that the Congress and the TDP had colluded to rake up the ''beedi sentiment to deliberately push the Telangana sentiment into the background.'' Meanwhile, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said the pictorial warning Act was brought into force in 2003 when TDP supported NDA government was in power at the Centre and the rules under the Act was framed in 2005 when Chandrasekhara Rao was the Union Labour Minister.

While the Congress had fielded T Jeevan Reddy in Karimnagar, the TDP had fielded its former MP L Ramana, who represented the BC Community, which forms a majority of the voters and the beedi workers.

In Bobbili, however the fight would be between the Congress and the TDP. Though the seat belonged to the TDP, the party is doubtful about the victory of its candidate Appala Naidu, son of the deceased MP, who had never been in active politics.

On the other hand, the Congress had fielded a seasoned politician Ms Bothsa Jhansi, Vizianagaram ZP Chairperson and wife of Marketing Minister Botsa Satyanarayana.

Though BJP had fielded P Sanyasi Raju as its candidate, the main contest would be between the Congress and the TDP as BJP did not have an impressive presence in the constituency.

Bobbili had a total of 10,15,497 voters, out of which 4,94,235 are men and 5,21,262 women.

As far as Left parties are concerned, while CPI supported the Congress, the CPI(M) supported the TDP for the bypolls.

UNI