In an interesting political development, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president and Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandrashekar Rao has announced that he will be contesting from two constituencies – Gajwel and Kamareddy – in the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections. Telangana is expected to go to polls by the end of this year. KCR is the sitting MLA of Gajwel. He contested from the constituency since the formation of Telangana, in both the 2014 and 2018 elections.
The first list of BRS candidates was released by KCR on Monday, August 21, in which the names for 115 constituencies out of the total 119 seats were announced. It is being speculated that KCR devised the strategy to contest from Kamareddy, so that other BRS candidates from the Nizamabad region who are sceptical about their victory would ride on KCR’s wave. The present MLA of Kamareddy, Gampa Govardhan, had hinted at this strategy a few days ago. He had said that KCR was eager to contest from Kamareddy as the CM’s family was originally from Kamareddy before moving to Chintamadaka village in Medak. Govardhan’s name was not announced in the initial list announced on Monday.
KCR’s rivals– Eatala Rajender from the BJP and Revanth Reddy from the Congress – had earlier suggested that the Chief Minister was likely to lose the Gajwel seat, saying certain survey results did not indicate a positive result. Eatala Rajender had time and again challenged the incumbent Chief Minister that he was ready to contest against KCR in Gajwel, provided the party gave him an opportunity. Similarly, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Revanth Reddy last month claimed that KCR was unlikely to win from Gajwel.
KCR has won the Gajwel constituency consecutively for two terms, in 2014 and 2018. In 2014, he won with 86,694 votes. In the following election, he won by securing over 1.2 lakh votes. Before KCR, the Gajwel constituency was held by Congress leaders Tumkunta Narsa Reddy (2009) and J Geeta Reddy (2004).
In the list announced on Monday, the sitting MLAs representing Vemulawada, Boath, Station Ghanpur, Asifabad, Wyra, Korutla and Uppal constituencies did not feature. The candidates for four Assembly constituencies — Nampally, Narsapur, Goshamahal and Jangaon — will be announced later.
KCR said that he expects BRS to win 95 to 105 seats this time. In 2018, BRS had initially won 88 seats. Later, several MLAs from Congress, TDP and independent candidates joined BRS, increasing its strength in the Assembly.