Soon after the by-polls to seven Assembly segments scheduled for this month, the ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh faces an uphill task with another round of by-elections that have been necessitated in 17 other constituencies.
The present round of by-polls to the seven Assembly seats, slated for March 18, itself is an acid test for the party as six of them are in the volatile Telangana region.
The Congress is accused of betraying the Telangana people by not accepting the separate statehood demand despite allegedly making a promise to do so.
The by-polls in five of the six seats in Telangana have been necessitated as the incumbent MLAs quit in support of their demand for separate statehood. The sitting MLA in another seat died.
Riding on the strong statehood sentiment, those who resigned are expected to win in their re-election bid.
The by-election in the lone constituency in a non-Telangana region has been necessitated as the sitting TDP MLA quit in support of Kadapa MP, Mr Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, the ambitious son of late Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhar Reddy.
Soon after the March 18 by-polls, the Congress would face its first electoral face-off with Mr Jagan, who quit the party in late 2010 following differences with the Congress high command, in the form of by-elections to 17 another seats.
The by-polls in 16 of them were caused as the sitting Congress MLAs were disqualified last week by the Assembly Speaker for violating the party whip and voting against the Government during a TDP-sponsored no-confidence motion in December last.
While disqualifying the 16 MLAs, the Speaker had accepted the resignation of one MLA of the erstwhile Praja Rajyam, who had shifted loyalties to Mr Jagan.
The second round of by-elections for 17 Assembly seats, likely to be held in June, would be a tough electoral battle for the Congress, beset as it is with problems such as internal dissidence, uncertainty over the Telangana issue and the formidable threat from Mr Jagan and the main Opposition TDP.
Mr Jagan would leave no stone unturned to win the 17 seats so far held by his loyalists. Moreover, it will be necessary for him to win them so as to emerge as a force to reckon with in the 2014 Assembly polls.
A good show at the hustings would also be crucial for the Telugu Desam, which lost power in 2004, so as to emerge victorious in the 2014 polls.
The Jagan-led YSR Congress had alleged that the Congress got the Speaker to delay disqualification of the MLAs as it did not want to face all the by-polls at one go.
In addition to the bypolls, Congress also faces biennial Rajya Sabha elections, scheduled to be held on March 30, in which it can win four seats.