The stage is set for the crucial by elections in four Lok Sabha and 18 assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, which is being seen at large as a referendum on the key issue of Telangana state. Except one, all the assembly and Lok Sabha seats are in Telangana region and the by elections were caused by the enmasse resignation by the TRS representatives as a mark of protest on the issue of Telangana statehood. The by-elections have assumed more than usual significance because they will reveal the mind of the people in 42 of the 294 assembly segments in the state. More than any other party, the TRS has more at stake. It is being seen as a do-or-die battle for the party as if it loses even a few of its seat it will deliver a deadly blow to the party. Though the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy-led Congress and the Telugu Desam party of N Chandrababu Naidu tried to change the focus of the by poll by making development of the state and the failures of four-year-old Congress government their main poll planks respectively. But the Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K. Chandrasekhara Rao exuded confidence that the people of Telangana will once for all give their verdict in favor of Telangana by ensuring TRS' victory on all the 16 assembly and four Lok Sabha seats it had vacated in March. Two other assembly seats of Therlam and Khairatabad fell vacant because of the death of sitting TDP and Congress members. About 8 million electorate in these constituencies will exercise their franchise and the fate of the candidates will be known on June 1. Concluding his campaign in Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency, where he is in the fray for the third time in the last four years, Chandrasekhara Rao said, “We will get cent percent result. We will get all the seats”, he said. The chief minister on the other hand expressed confidence that the Congress will win at least half of the Lok Sabha and assembly seats going to the polls as the people were “satisfied with development under Congress”. The Telugu Desam president Chandrababu Naidu was also in high spirits as he rounded up his campaign in Nalgonda district last evening with a call to the people to reject the “corrupt and inefficient Congress” and “opportunist TRS”. __
