HYDERABAD: A day after denying that the coming byelections are a referendum on Congress governance in the state, chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy said Wednesday that the Telangana factor is not going to be an issue at all in the six byelections scheduled to take place in the region on Marcy 18.During an informal interaction with mediapersons in his chambers at the Assembly, the chief minister rated his party's chances as bright in at least three to four of the six constituencies. The voters are aware that the Telangana issue is pending at the Centre and therefore would not judge parties in terms of their stance and performance on that point alone, he said.As evidence, Kiran Kumar pointed to the "massive attendance" of people in processions led by party candidates while filing nominations for the bypolls. "The party will go to the people with what it has done for the people and what it intends to do," he said.Analysing the outcome of elections in five states in the north, the chief minister said they proved one point: what decides the fortunes of a political party are the immediate issues before the people. "People may not vote for a party only on the basis of what they have already done. What they are more interested in is what you are going to do next," he said.To illustrate his point, he recalled the voting pattern of about 500 people in a village in his constituency Pileru. “The Congress used to not be able to get more than a 30-vote majority in this village despite spending `4.5 crore, which translated to `3 lakh per head. In fact, the Congress used to get more votes in the past when it did not take up any development work there," he said.Describing the defeat of the Congress in UP as a temporary setback, Kiran Kumar said it would lay a solid foundation for the party to bounce back in the 2014 general election.
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