Kamareddy: Kamareddy gears up for a fierce triangular contest, with Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao and Congress chief A Revanth Reddy fighting a direct battle, and a relatively inexperienced Katipally Venkataramana Reddy, the dark horse from the BJP, threatening to play spoilsport, playing the local card.
Telangana goes to polls on November 30, 2023, to elect all 119 members of the Assembly. The results will be declared on December 3.
With Chief Minister KCR choosing Kamareddy as a second seat, it is no more a routine battle in the Assembly constituency.
While many feel that the BRS president’s entry was forced by the doubtful status of his fortunes in his traditional seat, Gajwel, where he won in 2014 and 2018, the party contends that he is contesting in Kamareddy on the invitation of five-time winner Gampa Govardhan.
“I have invited him with love. It is an affectionate appeal from the people here. It is a pride to have the chief minister contest from our constituency,” said Govardhan, who has been campaigning for the party vigorously with his door-to-door visits for the past one month.
The electoral scene in Kamareddy is thus charged with excitement. The BJP's Venkataramana is keen to give a tough fight, but appears to end up splitting the anti-incumbency vote to favour the ruling BRS.
Also read: Telangana Elections 2023: Will the political quicksands suck in the BRS?
Migration of Cong workers affects Revanth’s campaign
Revanth’s entry has forced former Congress minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir, who lost this seat by 4,557 votes in 2018, to contest from the Nizamabad Urban constituency.
This unexpected development saw the Congress cadre and his followers move to the neighbouring constituency, thus weakening Revanth’s campaign. Hence, the Congress campaign relies heavily on senior party leaders from the erstwhile Nizamabad district. While Venkataramana Reddy of the BJP is leading a grassroots campaign, invoking local sentiments, Congress leaders are projecting Revanth as the future chief minister.
“KCR is not confident of winning Gajwel. So he is contesting from here. Or else, why did it take 40 years for him to remember his mother’s place,” asked Revanth, sharing the stage with Rahul Gandhi at a public meeting on Sunday (November 26).
He was referring to the near-by Konapur village, where KCR’s grandparents from his mother’s side hail from. In another public meeting, KCR’s daughter K Kavitha rubbished the comment saying, “KCR is the only leader who can win from any constituency.”
Reddy and Muslim votes
As one enters the town, a huge BRS campaign vehicle is greeted with foot-stomping Sai Chand songs, and the party flags, which were missing a week back, are all over the place.
Local BRS leaders are extensively touring rural areas. KCR, who was on a shaky wicket till a week back, now appears to have gained ground to scrape through with a narrow margin.
There are about 30,000 Reddys in the constituency but their vote is divided between Congress and the BJP.
Contrary to popular perception, many of the 30,000 Muslims in the region may vote for the BRS. Though the Congress is expected to win a chunk of the Muslim vote, there are some pockets where many from the minority community are loyal to the ruling party.
“My father was a farmer and when he was hospitalised and died, the family received Rs 5 lakh as support. Under the minority scheme, I also received a loan to start an electronics business,” said Yusuf Babar, a commerce graduate, currently plying an Uber taxi. “Many of our family members have benefited and this personal sentiment favours BRS,” he added.
KCR’s visit to Gajwel, Kamareddy
A confident KCR has not visited Gajwel after filing nomination and is scheduled to make a final visit on the last day of the campaigning, by 5 pm on November 28, but has already made a couple of visits to Kamareddy, which has seen other star campaigners like KTR and Harish Rao.
Revanth, too, has intermittently campaigned in the constituency, leaving the local leaders to handle the rest. The public meeting of Rahul Gandhi on Sunday attracted a huge gathering. Meanwhile, BJP candidate Venkataramana Reddy is presenting himself as accessible and available to solve people’s problems.
He was the Zilla Praja Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) member of United Nizamabad, and his political journey includes stints with different parties, including BRS and YSR Congress.
Venkataramana’s rise
Venkataramana is a known fan of late YS Rajasekhar Reddy, who is behind Venkataramana’s rising prominence in the area, especially after Venkataramana took up the issue of delayed wages for Anganwadi workers and led protests against the the Kamareddy Master Plan, which is now shelved by the government.
This has garnered significant goodwill for the BJP candidate. For the last three years, he has been with the BJP.
The Telangana government proposed to acquire 1,200 acres of land from five villages and many farmers, who were affected, opposed the plan and formed a Farmers Joint Action Committee. After the agitation, the government halted the proposal but there is no official communication that the master plan is withdrawn.
There is also speculation that either Chandrasekhar Rao or Revanth may vacate the seat, if elected elsewhere, triggering a by-election. It is a concern both the BRS and the Congress is ignoring.
“We don’t want them to resign and force another bye-election. We need local leaders who are available for us to solve the day-to-day issues,” said Sandeep Rao, a student of Government Arts College, Kamareddy.
Following the district's bifurcation in 2016, Kamareddy is now the headquarters of a separate district with 2,45,822 registered voters, with 1,27,080 women and 1,18,718 men.
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