Days after Telangana MLA from the ruling BRS Ajmera Rekha Nayak’s public dissent over denial of the party ticket from Khanapur, the Mahabubabad Superintendent of Police (SP) Sharath Chandra Pawar, who happens to be her son-in-law, has been transferred out of the post. Pawar was asked to report to the Telangana State Police Academy on Monday, August 28.
Usually, ahead of any Assembly or Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission of India (ECI) issues guidelines for the transfer of officers, and officers who are posted in their home districts or have completed three years in their posting at the time of the election must be transferred out. Pawar, however, is reportedly from Hyderabad, and was posted as Mahabubabad SP less than two years ago in December 2021.
The purportedly untimely transfer has led to speculation among sections of the media that it is connected to BRS MLA Rekha Nayak’s dissidence. Earlier on August 21, months ahead of the Telangana Assembly elections scheduled to be held by the end of 2023, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao released the list of candidates for 115 seats out of the state’s 119 constituencies. Rekha was among the nine sitting MLAs who were denied tickets. The very next day, Shyam Nayak, Rekha Nayak's husband, joined Congress in protest, and applied for a ticket for the Asifabad constituency.
Rekha also openly expressed her disappointment at KCR’s decision to leave her out of the list. At a press meet after the BRS list was announced, Rekha Nayak objected to Bhukya Johnson Rathod Naik's nomination from the Khanapur (ST) constituency, claiming that he was not actually a tribal person, and alleging that he had hampered development in Khanapur by stalling funds, misusing his proximity to Minister KT Rama Rao.
Pawar’s transfer has also come amid reports that Rekha had applied for a Congress ticket to contest the 2023 Assembly election. However, she is yet to formally switch parties. In a recent interview, she told NTV that she was planning to join Congress once her term as a BRS MLA came to an end. She insisted that she was still a member of the BRS party and Khanapur's MLA until the elections.
Meanwhile, Gundeti Chandramohan has been appointed as Mahabubabad's new SP.
