Congress candidate Sabitha Indra Reddy, the former Home Minister of united Andhra Pradesh, has pulled off a victory from Maheshwaram constituency for the Telangana Congress. Sabitha defeated the incumbent Teegala Krishna Reddy, of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) by a margin of 9,227 votes on Tuesday.
This is the second time Sabitha contested from the Maheshwaram constituency and also the second time Sabitha and Krishna Reddy fought it out at the polls. Sabitha won against Krishna Reddy in the 2009 Andhra Pradesh state elections. Though she did not contest elections in 2014 for the Congress, Sabitha managed to wrest the MLA post for the Congress from TRS. She secured 95481 votes this election.
Sabitha first entered politics after the death of her husband, P Indra Reddy, a well-known Congress leader in Andhra Pradesh politics. Sabitha recorded her first victory in 2004 from the Chevella assembly constituency to become the Minister for Mines and Geology.
In 2009, she became the first woman Home Minister of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, from Chevella. At the time, she defeated Krishna Reddy, who was then a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) candidate, by 7,833 votes.
However, in 2014, Sabitha was named the eight accused in the illegal mining case against Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) of Gali Janardhan Reddy. She was charge-sheeted by the CBI for allegedly giving preferential treatment while sanctioning mining lease to OMC. In 2014, the Congress denied Sabitha a ticket to contest the polls.
Krishna Reddy, who won against the Congress candidate in 2014, later defect to TRS. He was formerly the Hyderabad Mayor and is the chairman of TKR Educational institutions.
The Maheshwaram constituency has a population of 4.06 lakh according to 2011 census and comes under the Chevella Lok Sabha segment in Rangareddy district. The constituency, made up of the Saroornagar, Kandukur and Maheshwaram mandals, has a mix of both rural and urban voters, who are Andhra natives.