Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader and incumbent Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao won from the Siddipet constituency with a massive margin for the sixth consecutive time. Harish Rao, the nephew of K Chandrasekhar Rao, didn’t have a contest with no strong candidates put up against him.
The Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) reluctantly fielded Bhavani Marikanti Reddy, a social activist who made her political debut, as part of the People’s Front, while the BJP had fielded Naini Narotham Reddy. Harish Rao, who took over the Siddipet constituency in 2004 from his uncle and mentor KCR, won with a majority of 24,829 votes over Telugu Desam Party’s Cheruku Muthyam Reddy.
He is a founding member of the TRS and has never lost an election. Ever since, after taking reins of Siddipet, which is the citadel of the TRS, Rao has won with a huge majority, even ensuring that his opponents lost their deposits in some of the elections.
Though he is a protege of KCR, Harish has surpassed him when it comes to winning elections with a record majority. In the 2009 Assembly elections, Rao got a massive majority of 64,877 votes against Anjaiah Byri of the Congress, while KCR, who had contested from the same seat, won with a majority of 44,476 votes.
In the 2014 elections after Telangana was achieved, Harish Rao got an overwhelming victory margin of 93,328 votes against his Congress opponent T Srinivas Goud, surpassing the record held by late chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who had won with a majority of 68,681 votes from Pulivendula in 2009.
Confident about an easy victory, in fact, Harish Rao focused on Gajwel, the constituency of KCR and campaigned for him for nearly two months.
There is also constant speculation about the relationship between Harish Rao and KT Rama Rao, the son of KCR. There is a strong sentiment among many that while Harish, who worked his way from the grassroots level was touted to succeed KCR, KTR’s return to India from the US has since shifted that narrative. Many say that if KTR were to attempt to succeed KCR, Harish would not go down without a fight.
However, both of them have repeatedly dismissed the speculation and reiterated that they ‘grew up like brothers’.