BJP's Bandi Sanjay Kumar wins Telangana’s Karimnagar constituency by over 2.25 lakh votes

Bandi Sanjay Kumar

Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Bandi Sanjay Kumar has won the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency in Telangana. He won by over 2.25 lakh votes, polling over 5.85 lakh votes.

His nearest rival Velchala Rajendar Rao of the Congress managed to secure about 3.6 lakh votes.

The Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat was expected to be a three-way fight amongst Kumar, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), and Congress. However, Kumar defeated his nearest rival by a wide margin.

Traditionally, voters in the constituency have not voted an incumbent candidate in the past three general elections, with TRS’ B Vinod Kumar representing the seat in 2014 and Congress’ Ponnam Prabhakar in 2009.

Kumar, also a BJP National General Secretary, won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by a margin of almost 90,000 votes.

BRS fielded B Vinod Kumar for the constituency, who has represented the seat in Lok Sabha 2014-2019. Meanwhile, Congress’ Velichala Rajender Rao was in the fray, making it a triangular fight.

Karimnagar has seven assembly segments including Karimnagar, Choppadandi, Vemulawada, Sircilla, Manakondur, Huzurabad, and Husnabad.

Of Telangana’s 17 seats, BJP and Congress won 8 each, while the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency.

According to News18’s exit poll, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was expected to win 7-10 seats while the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) was expected to win around 5-8 seats, and others would account for 3-5 seats.

BRS’ defeat in 2019 at the hands of BJP in Karimnagar seat was a major blow to the regional party as the seat was once held by former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. In fact, Rao won the seat thrice under the Telangana Rashtra Samithi banner.

To beat anti-incumbency, the BJP hit the street with meetings and extensive door-to-door campaigning to “expose” the “unfulfilled promises” of the BRS and the ruling Congress.

Some key issues on which parties contested the seat were drinking water supply, garbage menace, unplanned development, unemployment, etc.