The next 50 days in Kamareddy and Gajwel will be a different cup of tea as the BRS plans a campaign blitzkrieg to ensure a record majority for the party candidate here, who goes by the name of K Chandrashekhar Rao
Published Date – 08:00 AM, Thu – 12 October 23
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Hyderabad: The campaign, polling and counting in two constituencies in the State will be the cynosure of all eyes, despite even children knowing who is going to win. The next 50 days in Kamareddy and Gajwel will be a different cup of tea as the BRS plans a campaign blitzkrieg to ensure a record majority for the party candidate here, who goes by the name of K Chandrashekhar Rao.
With BRS working president KT Rama Rao launching the campaign late last week, the BRS machinery is already on the job. However, the situation on the other side of the fence is entirely different. The Congress is not just silent, but uncertain as well and even devoid of any fighting spirit. The BJP, on the other hand, is said to be preparing to make some noise at least, with sources saying that the party could field Huzurabad MLA and BJP election management committee chairman Etala Rajender from Gajwel and Nizamabad MP Arvind Dharmapuri from Kamareddy.
The BJP has fielded several union Ministers and MPs as party candidates for the forthcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and a similar strategy might be adopted in Telangana as well by fielding Etala and Arvind against the Chief Minister in Gajwel and Kamareddy respectively. It is learnt that the BJP leadership had assured the leaders that if they do not succeed in registering a win, they would be given a chance to contest the Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held next year.
Though Arvind might try to extract some mileage out of the National Turmeric Board announcement, though he was not able to do anything about the board for the last four years, there appears to be not much of hope for Etala in Gajwel. There is also talk that with internal dissidence against Etala quite intense in the BJP, his chances even in Huzurabad could be tough if he tries to contest from there.
In Kamareddy in 2018, Gampa Govardhan of ruling TRS (now BRS) defeated Mohammed Ali Shabbir of the Congress by a margin of 4557 votes. Govardhan polled 68,167 votes, while Shabbir polled 63,610 votes. BJP’s Katipally Venkataramana Reddy managed to poll just 15,439 votes, losing his deposit.
In Gajwel, Chandrashekhar Rao had won comfortably, defeating Vanteru Pratap Reddy of the Congress by 58,290 votes. The Chief Minister polled 1,25,444 votes, while Pratap Reddy got 67,154 votes. Akula Vijaya of BJP got just 1587 votes out of the total 2,07,520 votes polled.
As for the Congress in these two constituencies, the party appears to have already thrown in the towel. While Shabbir Ali might be the sacrificial lamb in Kamareddy, eight candidates, including former MLA Narsa Reddy, have applied for tickets from Gajwel.
And just like the BJP, the Congress has reportedly not even discussed plans on how to fight the political giant on the other side. The party leadership has given up and is not keen on spending too much of energy in a losing cause in these two constituencies, a senior Congress leader admitted. Though both Shabbir Ali and Narsa Reddy were trying to put on a brave face, they were worried even about support from the party leadership and local cadre. The rampant infighting has only worsened their worries.
Though there was some talk that top Congress leaders like TPCC president A Revanth Reddy or others should contest from these constituencies to boost the cadre’s morale, leaders point out that the party’s big guns are busy securing for themselves constituencies where there wouldn’t be much of risk for them.
