Comments
Trouble continues to dog the Congress in Telangana as its fortunes plummet. The party suffered a major reverse today with DK Aruna, former minister, quitting to join the BJP.
In December 2018, the Congress suffered a severe drubbing at the hands of the Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS), winning just 19 out of the 119-member Legislative Assembly. The TRS bagged 88.
Even before the leadership and the party could recover from the ‘shock treatment’ administered as a result of the spectacular victory by Chief Minister and TRS Chief, K Chandrasekhar Rao, the Parliament elections are scheduled for April 11.
A demoralised Congress has started steadily losing its MLAs to the TRS in the past few weeks. At last count, the strength is down to around a dozen, with reports that it will slip further. KCR himself openly announced that the party will be left with just a handful of MLAs.
Prospects in LS
In the background of a poor show in the Assembly, desertions and the high command, read Rahul Gandhi, unable to boost the morale, the Congress faces an uphill task in putting up a good fight in the April 11 elections to the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the State. It won just two seats (Gutha Sukhender Reddy from Nalgonda and Nandi Yellaiah from NagarKurnool) in 2014.
One positive development before the December 2018 Assembly elections was an MP from TRS, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy (Chevella) joining its ranks. The notable thing about the party, which was in power for four decades in the united Andhra Pradesh, is its ability to get candidates to fight the elections. Many of its top leaders have entered the fray. A notable exception is the veteran leader, former Union Minister, S Jaipal Reddy who is not contesting this time.
Except the Khammam seat, the AICC has come up with the list of all the 16 seats the party will contest. The first list included the Working President, A Revanth Reddy (Malkajgiri), his first shot at the Lok Sabha. Konda Vishweshwar Reddy (Chevella), who got elected in 2014 on TRS ticket. The others are, Ramesh Rathod (Adilabad-ST), A Chandra Sekhar (Peddapalle-SC), Ponnam Prabhakar (Karimnagar), K Madan Mohan Rao (Zahirabad), Gali Anil Kumar (Medak) and Porika Balram Naik (Mahabubabad-ST).
In the second list, the Congress has favoured some of its leaders to take on the TRS, which is also searching for some strong candidates in half a dozen constituencies. Incidentally, the TRS won 11 seats in 2014 and has claimed that it will bag 16, while the 17th -- Hyderabad constituency will likely be won by MIM strongman Asaduddin Owaisi.
Among those to enter the fray are Party State Chief, Uttam Kumar Reddy (Nalgonda), Komatireddy Venkatreddy (Bhuvanagiri), Anjan Kumar Yadav (Secunderabad), Madhu Yaski Gowd (Nizamabad), Mallu Ravi for Nagarkurnool, Feroz Khan (Hyderabad), Dommati Sambaiah (Warangal) and N Vamsichand Reddy for Mahbubnagar.
DK Aruna, ex MLA of the Cong(I) is now expected to fight on the BJP ticket from Mahbubnagar constituency, which is held by A P Jitender Reddy (TRS) and ex BJP. The MIM Chief Asaduddin has already filed his nomination.
Interestingly, KCR is holding his cards close to his chest, stating that the full TRS list will be announced on Thursday. He held two rallies in Karimnagar, where he said the sitting MP, B Vinod Kumar will be renominated and in Nizamabad, where again the sitting MP and his daughter K Kavitha will be given the ticket.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.