The Chandrasekhar Rao-headed Telangana Rashtra Samiti(TRS) and the TDP-BJP combine, who have all been engaged in a war of words in the run-up to the bypoll scheduled for September 13, have continued to slug it out, with the campaign getting more dramatic and shriller by the day.
Earlier, the BJP had taken exception to the TRS' charge that its bypoll candidate T Jayaprakash Reddy is an "integrationist" (who was against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh).
Seeking to wrest the Medak Lok Sabha constituency from the TRS, the BJP has fielded former Congress MLA Jayaprakash Reddy, who has been a bitter critic of the TRS and used to be with the BJP earlier.
The BJP's alliance partner TDP has also been trying to corner the ruling TRS-led Telangana government on various counts.
Hoping to salvage its prestige after its failure to come to power in Telangana even after the UPA government delivered on the separate statehood demand, the Congress has also mounted an attack on the TRS and fielded former minister V Sunita Laxma Reddy for the by-election.