Hyderabad It could be a key electoral battle at Kamareddy in the upcoming elections to the Telangana assembly with Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao facing a tough contest from Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A Revanth Reddy.
An otherwise low-profile constituency located on Kanyakumari-Srinagar national highway (NH-44) about 120 km away from Hyderabad, Kamareddy suddenly gained the attention of the country when KCR announced the first list of candidates on August 21, pitching himself as the candidate from this constituency apart from his original seat Gajwel.
The announcement caught the Congress off guard, as Kamareddy was one of the seats it was damn sure of winning. In December 2018 assembly elections, BRS MLA Gampa Goverdhan just scraped through by winning the seat with a slender margin of around 5,000 votes against former Congress minister Mohammad Ali Shabbir.
“This time, the BRS realised well in advance that Goverdhan is bound to lose the seat. That is why, KCR himself has decided to take a plunge into the battle from Kamareddy. In the last three months, the campaign managers of KCR, led by his son K T Rama Rao, have extensively covered the constituency with a promise that if given a chance, KCR will develop Kamareddy on par with Gajwel and Siddipet,” Md Javeed Ali, correspondent of a local Urdu daily, said.
It took nearly two and a half months for the Congress to decide on selecting the candidate who can take on KCR in Kamareddy. “Several surveys were done by the team of Mindshare Analytics headed by political strategist Sunil Kanugolu to find out the right choice. No doubt, Shabbir is a good candidate and has a lot of clout locally. But he is not strong enough to put up a fight against KCR,” a senior Congress leader familiar with the development said.
{{/usCountry}}It took nearly two and a half months for the Congress to decide on selecting the candidate who can take on KCR in Kamareddy. “Several surveys were done by the team of Mindshare Analytics headed by political strategist Sunil Kanugolu to find out the right choice. No doubt, Shabbir is a good candidate and has a lot of clout locally. But he is not strong enough to put up a fight against KCR,” a senior Congress leader familiar with the development said.
{{/usCountry}}Finally, the party zeroed in on Revanth Reddy to fight the battle royale in Kamareddy. “He is not only a man of guts to take on KCR, but can also attract the attention of voters across the state as a fighter,” the party leader quoted above said.
Both KCR and Revanth Reddy are non-local candidates in Kamareddy – while KCR hails from Chintamadaka in Siddipet district, Revanth Reddy hails from Kodangal in Mahabubnagar district.
“That way, KCR has an advantage over Revanth Reddy in that Siddipet is closer to Kamareddy. Secondly, KCR’s maternal grandparents hail from Konapur village of Kamareddy and that way, the constituency is his birthplace. Thirdly, being the chief minister, KCR has the natural advantage,” Javeed Ali said.
However, it is not going to be a straight fight between KCR and Revanth Reddy at Kamareddy. There is another candidate, who is all set to play spoiler for both of them. He is K Venkata Ramana Reddy, former chairman of Nizamabad zilla parishad, who is contesting on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket.
“Even before KCR announced his candidature and Revanth Reddy entered the fray, Venkata Ramana Reddy has been nurturing this constituency for the last two years. He has been going door to door attending to the needs of the people, spending his own money on various developmental works in the villages and taking part in agitations, including the recent struggle against revised Kamareddy masterplan,” said V Praveen, a private college lecturer from Mothe village.
Though Venkata Ramana Reddy might not be strong enough to defeat KCR, he could definitely play a spoilsport, furthering the chances of Revanth Reddy. “The Congress party is banking on the Reddy community, which is traditionally against the BRS. There are around 30,000 Reddy votes in this constituency, but it is unlikely that they would polarise in favour of Revanth Reddy,” M Jaipal Reddy, an academician from Kamareddy town, said.
Since Venkata Ramana Reddy is also a serious contender, he would split a good number of Reddy votes and that might help KCR to some extent, he added.
However, there is also a possibility of Revanth Reddy polling a large number of Reddy votes, if they feel that if he can defeat KCR, he will emerge as the chief ministerial choice of the party. “If the party leaders can take this narrative strongly into the community, it would help the Congress,” Jaipal Reddy said.
Same is the case with the minority votes. There are around 29,000 Muslim votes in Kamareddy constituency. “Had the Congress fielded Mohd Ali Shabbir, a majority of them would have voted for him. Now that Revanth Reddy is in fray, they are hesitant to vote for him. If he can step up his fight in the next two weeks, there is a possibility of around 50 per cent of Muslim votes going to the Congress,” Javeed Ali said.
Kamareddy masterplan
The major issue that is posing a threat to the prospects of KCR is the recent proposal of his government to change the masterplan of Kamareddy which evoked strong resistance from the locals in the town and farmers of adjacent villages.
According to the plan, the government proposed to acquire around 1200 acres of land in five villages in and around Kamareddy abutting the NH-44 to develop an industrial zone, which it said would provide employment to hundreds of local youth.
“This is nothing but a plan to benefit real estate mafia and local BRS leaders, who are eyeing precious lands adjacent to the national highway. Since it is hardly 120 km away from Hyderabad, the land value has shot up considerably. The farmers are not willing to part with their lands,” K Srinivas, a research scholar of Kamareddy town, said.
Several farmers, whose lands were notified for acquisition filed nominations as independents on behalf of Kamareddy Farmers’ Joint Action Committee (JAC) in protest against the development master plan of the Kamareddy municipality.
“KCR’s son K T Rama Rao, who is also the municipal administration minister, held a meeting with the JAC representatives in August and assured that the masterplan would be scrapped. The local municipality announced that the masterplan would not be implemented. But there is no official order to that effect till date. Where is the guarantee that the masterplan proposal will not be revived after BRS wins the elections?” Srinivas asked.