"He is the richest candidate in the state. He doesn't need power to earn money," says a farm labour Shivamma who has come to listen to Congress' Konda Vishweshwar Reddy at Tangedapally mandal in Chevella Lok Sabha constituency.
As groups of people gather at a venue in the summer heat, Reddy, who has assets worth Rs 223 crore, steps out of his Innova car in his simple attire and casual footwear.
An engineer-turned-entrepreneur, Reddy -- son-in law of C Pratap Reddy who is the founder-chairman of the Apollo group of Hospitals -- arrives at the venue to address a gathering of 150 people and the moment a Congress worker picks up a mike to start the programme, the power goes off.
"The power cuts were there, but this has been happening at Reddy's campaign venues over the last few days," claims Shakeel Ahmed, ex-sarpanch of Pudur mandal.
He accuses the TRS government of creating hurdles for Reddy who was elected on TRS ticket in 2014 but quit the party and is contesting against TRS' G Ranjith Reddy, a non-local candidate.
Vishweshwar Reddy is the grandson of former Andhra Deputy chief minister Konda Venkata Ranga Reddy. The district of Ranga Reddy, formerly known as Hyderabad Rural, was renamed after this Congress leader.
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After a few minutes, the programme finally starts and the crowd cheers as Vishweshwar Reddy stands up to speak.
"I did not switch party, I am where I was earlier. But the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has changed its ideology.
"Congress works for the poor and Sonia Gandhi (UPA chairperson) gave us Telangana," he said appealing the gathering to vote for the hand symbol.
"If you vote for Congress, Rahul Gandhi will become prime minister. If you vote for BJP, Narendra Modi will become PM. If you vote for TRS, who will become PM?" he asks and the crowd responds saying "no one."
While Naidu sliced backward castes into Yadavs, Gouds and Kapus, TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao went further "touching communities having 1-2 per cent population", he said,
Pointing to sheep and goats "procured from outside" grazing in the fields, he says, "Do you know why biryani in Telangana tastes differently under the TRS regime? Our biryani used to be very good because it used to be made from special variety of sheep."