After a lot of suspense, the BJP announced that Dr Panugothu Ravi Kumar will be its candidate for Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly bye-election in Telangana. Kumar hails from the Lambada community which falls under the Scheduled Tribe category. Dr Ravi completed his MBBS from Osmania Medical College and is presently working as an assistant civil surgeon.
He runs a 50-bed hospital in Nagarjuna Sagar’s Halia town. In 2018, the 36-year-old doctor established Nirmala Foundation, which has organized several health camps for the people of his district and is also popular for setting up soup kitchens and shelters for the homeless and the needy.
Dr Ravi was mandal in-charge for the Congress Party until 2020. According to Kumar, he had been playing a major role in veteran Congress leader K Jana Reddy’s victory from the constituency. In the upcoming election, Dr Ravi will be contesting against the same person whom he had campaigned for in the last many years. K Jana Reddy has been finalized as the Congress candidate in the upcoming election.
BJP’s central leadership named Kumar as the candidate, ignoring other contenders including K Niveditha Reddy, who last week filed her nomination without waiting for the official announcement of the candidate by the party. Niveditha Reddy, who had unsuccessfully contested for the same seat in 2018, filed her nomination on Friday and was hoping that the party leadership will clear her candidature.
It remains to be seen if she will now withdraw from the contest or decide to contest as a rebel. K Anjaiah Yadav is another candidate who was hoping to get his hands on the BJP ticket.
The by-election is scheduled to be held on April 17. Tuesday is the last day for filing of nominations. The vacancy was caused by the death of sitting legislator Nomula Narsimhaiah of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). In 2018, Nomula Narsimhaiah had defeated his nearest rival Jana Reddy of Congress by a margin of 7,771 votes. While Narsimhaiah polled 83,655 votes, Jana Reddy secured 75,884 votes. Niveditha Reddy of BJP could get only 2,675 votes.