Hustling at the hustings

The BRS wants to make a statement, the BJP wants to expand and the Congress wants to retain its seat—the story of a byelection in Telangana

- RAHUL DEVULAPALLI

The Munugode assembly seat in south Telangana—where a byelection was forced because the sitting Congress MLA resigned and switched to the BJP—is marked by two diminishing peculiarities. The first being its affinity to the Reds. Ever since the constituency came into being in 1967, the Communist Party of India has won five assembly elections here. The last win, however, was in 2009. “The modern election practices have made it difficult for parties like us,” said former CPI MLA Palla Venkat Reddy. “There is heavy flow of money everywhere.”

The second peculiarity is that Munugode was once on the global map for widespread fluorosis. The high fluoride content in the groundwater led to physical deformities among residents, most notably stunted growth. So acute was the problem that international agencies would frequently pitch in with resources and ideas, without much success.

The disease spurred local activism. In 1996, nearly 500 people fought the Nalgonda Lok Sabha election (which covers Munugode assembly) to highlight their demand for proper drinking water. In 2003, two people with fluorosis—standing at under three foot because of skeletal deformities—were introduced to then Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee in his Delhi office.

“Thousands in this constituency were affected and many died in front of my eyes,” recalls 52-year-old Kanchukotla Subash, convener of the Fluorosis Vimukthi Porata Samithi.

There has, however, been a turnaround over the years and, in 2020, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (formerly the Telangana Rashtra Samithi) government declared that the state had eliminated fluorosis.