While the polling for the Lok Sabha elections in Telangana has ended, the political heat continues as the major political players have intensified their campaign for the by-election of the Member of Legislative Council (MLC) from the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda Graduates' constituency.
The vacancy arose after Palla Rajeshwar Reddy of the BRS resigned after he was elected to the Assembly from the Jangaon constituency in the November 2023 Assembly elections.
BRS has fielded A Rakesh Reddy, who had quit the BJP ahead of assembly elections in 2023 seeking a ticket from the Warangal constituency. However, BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao did not allocate him a ticket.
The BJP has again fielded its state General Secretary G Premender Reddy, who secured fourth place in 2021.
Chintapandu Naveen, also known as Teenmaar Mallanna, is in the fray this time as the Congress candidate. Mallanna had contested as an independent candidate for the MLC seat held two years ago and finished second in the election. Mallanna, who belongs to Backward Classes Munnuru Kapu community, joined the Congress before the Assembly elections. He was earlier with the BJP.
Mallanna runs a YouTube channel called 'Q News' and is considered highly critical of KCR and his family. When BRS was in power, he was arrested for his alleged derogatory posts and comments against KCR.
In 2021, Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) President and academician M Kodandaram also contested the poll from this MLC constituency but finished third. Kodandaram, a former professor of political science at Osmania University, had played a key role in the Telangana movement as convenor of the Joint Action Committee (JAC), which included TRS (now BRS). He was considered close to KCR. However, after the formation of Telangana in 2014, differences cropped up between them and Kodandaram floated the TJS.
In the recent Assembly elections, Kodandaram backed the Congress. He was later nominated to the Legislative Council under the Governor’s quota by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.
A total of 52 candidates are in fray for MLC seat. There are 4.6 lakh voters in the constituency spread over 34 assembly seats in the erstwhile districts of Warangal, Khammam, and Nalgonda. The ruling Congress party has 33 out of the 34 MLAs in the graduates' constituency.
The polling will be held on May 27 while counting of votes will be taken up on June 5, a day after counting of votes polled in Lok Sabha elections.
The by-election to the Legislative Council from Mahabubnagar Local Authorities’ Constituency was held on March 28 and the counting of votes was scheduled on April 2. However, the Election Commission postponed the counting to June 2 in view of the model code of conduct announced for the Lok Sabha elections.