KCR contesting from 2 seats to shake off BJP hold over Nizamabad, Karimnagar districts

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) took everyone by surprise after his name was found in the Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s (BRS) twice in the candidate list for the upcoming Assembly elections. KCR will be contesting from his bastion of Gajwel and the Kamareddy constituency. He claimed he was contesting from Kamareddy at the request of the sitting BRS MLA Gamma Govardhan. 

Earlier this week, KCR announced 114 names for 115 seats for the upcoming elections. Only nine sitting MLAs were dropped.

While the opposition took this move as another opportunity to attack KCR, party leaders from the BRS said it was aimed at having a stronger footprint in seats around Kamareddy, keeping in mind the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In the 2019 Parliament elections, the BRS managed to win just nine out of 17 seats, two lesser than the 11 it had won in 2014. The numbers were a setback, given that the party had won 88 out of 119 seats in the 2018 state polls.

“Last elections, we lost the Karimnagar and Nizamabad Lok Sabha seats to the BJP. If KCR camps in the area, it will show that the party is serious about developing those places as well. The distance between Nizamabad and Karimnagar is short. There is no question of KCR losing the Gajwel seat,” said a BRS leader. 

He conceded that the sitting BRS MLA from Kamareddy is facing anti-incumbency and that he would have in all likelihood, lost if KCR had decided not to contest the seat. “But with KCR in the driver's seat, BRS will win, and Gajwel might get vacated later since that is a strong seat for us,” the BRS leader added.

Until KCR won the Gajwel seat in the 2014 state elections, it was held by both the Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) at different times. Vanteru Pratap Reddy, who lost twice to KCR, contested on a Congress ticket in the 2018 Assembly elections and from a TDP ticket in the 2014 elections.

Before Gajwel, KCR had been contesting successfully and winning from the Siddipet seat, now held by his nephew and Telangana Finance Minister T Harish Rao. The first family of BRS has held the seat since 1985. In the 2018 state elections, Harish Rao won the seat with over 1.3 lakh votes, annihilating his nearest rival from the Telangana Jana Samithi, Bhavani Marikanti, who got only 15,371 votes.

“The BJP in Karimnagar and Nizamabad has been growing in the belts. So KCR contesting from Kamareddy makes sense, as his presence will make a difference. The narrative has always been that wherever the BRS family goes, there will be development like better infrastructure and higher land value. Gajwel constituency has been developed in the interiors also, so it makes sense,” said political analyst Dalwai Raghavendra Reddy.

In the Kamareddy seat, the Congress’s candidate is ex-cabinet minister Shabbir Ali. A senior leader from the grand old party said that Ali is now tense after KCR announced his candidature from the seat. “It will certainly be harder for Shabbir Ali now. He was hoping to win the seat this time as the sitting BRS MLA is facing heavy anti-incumbency,” he told TNM.