The May 29 by-polls for four Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly seats will be an acid test for the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) whose MPs, MLAs and MLCs had quit their posts in March to protest against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's alleged failure to carve out Telangana from Andhra Pradesh.
"We consider these elections as a referendum on the statehood demand. The Telangana people will teach a fitting lesson to the ruling Congress for betraying them," TRS founder president K Chandrasekhar Rao told PTI here.
The sub-regional party hopes that its victory at the hustings would force other political parties to accept the widespread public sentiment and initiate the process for carving out a new state.
Widely seen as the "semi-final" before the next year's general elections, the by-polls have become crucial for all the major players as its outcome will give an indication on which way the political wind is blowing.
The by-elections have been necessitated following resignation by four MPs and 16 MLAs of the TRS on March 4. The vacancies in two other Assembly segments were caused by the death of sitting members.
Facing the elections on development plank, the Congress has an uphill task ahead as its earlier allies have now turned foes. The ruling party finds itself pitted against the TRS and CPI (M) with whom it had formed alliance in the 2004 elections. Another old ally, CPI, has announced that it will maintain an equal distance from the Congress and the main opposition TDP.
