The ruling TRS is making every effort possible to defeat renegade leader and BJP candidate Eatala Rajender in the Huzurabad byelections. It has already begun showering Huzurabad with sops and has even launched schemes like the Dalit Bandhu. There is another strategy that the TRS is using. The strategy is to field as many independents as possible with name and initial resembling Eatala Rajender.

According to sources, as many as 5 candidates with the name E Rajender are in the fray in Huzurabad. Among the candidates are Easampalli Rajender, Immadi Rajender,Ippatipalli Rajender and several others. When abbreviated, they write their names as E Rajender. With names like this, it is easy to confuse the voters. While Immadi Rajender is a candidate of the Republican Party of India, Esampalli Rajender is from the New India Party. Similarly, Ippalapalli Rajender, who is from the All India BC OBC party, is also in the fray.

It may be recalled that KA Paul had put up almost 70 candidates whose name resembles the official YSRCP candidates during the 2019 elections. It is another matter that none of them managed to even secure the security deposit. Political observers feel that such namesake candidates will end up confusing the voters and could play a key role in the close contests.

Significantly, only recently KCR has impressed upon the need to remove any symbol with even remote resemblance to car such as lorry, truck, road roller and even roti belan from the list of free symbols to ensure that there is no disadvantage to the TRS official candidates. It remains to be seen how Eatala tackles this challenge.