Regardless of the outcome, Huzurabad bye-election will go down in the poll history for the number of surveys done. If unofficial sources are to be believed, over 100 surveys were commissioned on the outcome of Huzurabad assembly constituency by-election. The number of surveys was so high that the voters of the constituency are total fed up.

The situation is such that even after two days of the polling, survey agencies were scouring through the countryside and were seen collecting voters’ responses. In some places, the survey teams were shooed away by the locals, who termed them as nuisance.

Intel sources reveal that most of the surveys were commissioned by politicians who want to take a decision about their political career in the 2024 elections. Many industrialists and entrepreneurs with political ambitions have tried to gauge the public mood and then take a decision on which party to join. These surveys have never been publicized and were used for the personal consumption of the leader in question. Several persons got the surveys done to identify the winner and hedge their bets on him. In fact, Huzurabad bypoll has seen the highest betting in recent times.

Both the ruling TRS and the opposition BJP have also commissioned several surveys to understand the public mood. According to a senior politician, as many as 35 surveys were commissioned by both the parties. These surveys were commissioned at various stages of the electioneering to get a feel of the voters’ intentions. Thus, Huzurabad is a trend-setter on the issue of commissioning election surveys.

Will postal ballots decide the outcome of the prestigious Huzurabad byelection? All the major political parties are working hard to ensure that the postal ballots go their way. Hectic lobbying is on to woo those voting through the postal ballot. The postal ballots thus have become crucial for all the important candidates.

A unique feature of the Huzurabad elections is that there are more than 12000 postal ballots. As per the new rules brought into force by the Election Commision, the disabled and those above 80 years of age have been given the option of using the postal ballots. In Huzurabad assembly byelection, there are as many as 4454 voters who are above the age of 80 years. They would be able to vote through the postal ballot.

Similarly, there are 8139 disabled voters. They too would be able to exercise their franchise through the postal ballots. Besides, there are 147 employees, who would exercise their right to vote through the postal ballots. The total number of postal ballots is between 6 to 7 per cent. This could well be the winning margin in the election. Hence, the postal ballot votes have become very crucial in Huzurabad.

The political parties are devising strategies to garner every postal vote in their favour. The parties are already wooing the voters. Activists of all the three parties are said to be cajoling and convincing the postal ballot voters to vote for them. Different strategies are being employed to lure them.

The ambitious Dalit Bandhu scheme, it appears, is turning out to be a proverbial millstone around the neck of the TRS government in Telangana. While the announcements have been dandy, the implementation seems to be problematic. Despite all the hype and hoopla, there seems to be distrust over the scheme. The TRS thinking heads feel that the whole scheme might even boomerang on the ruling party.

There have been doubts over the Dalit Bandhu scheme from the beginning. It was always touted as a scheme that is being implemented in Huzurabad only with an eye on the bypolls. Then it was implemented in Vasalamarri village of Nalgonda district to show that it was not linked to elections. At the same time, there were doubts as to whether the scheme would ever be implemented in the whole constituency of Huzurabad. So, the government had completed a survey to prove its sincerity. But, there were doubts that the whole exercise would be limited to just surveys. The government then released Rs 2000 and has transferred the amounts into the accounts of 13000 chosen beneficiaries.

So far so good. Now when the beneficiaries are trying to withdraw the amounts, they were in for a shock. They were told by the bank officials that their accounts were freezed as per the directives of the collectorate. They were told that they would have to explain how the amounts would be spent and that the funds would be allowed to be withdrawn only if they start a beneficial business. This only means that despite having money in their accounts, they cannot withdraw them unless they start a profitable business.

When some beneficiaries went with proposals such as buying a cab or a tractor, the collector refused to release the amount saying they were not profit-making. With this, the beneficiaries returned home empty-handed. This is now turning out to be a huge issue in Huzurabad and the TRS leaders are beginning to feel that the whole scheme is ricocheting on them.