Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Medak in Telangana, Kotha Prabhakar Reddy, who is also the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) candidate of Dubbak constituency, was attacked by a knife-wielding man during his election campaign on Monday, October 30. The MP sustained peripheral stab injuries after he was attacked by Gatani Raju, a resident of Siddipet district. The Dubbak Assembly seat also falls in the same district, and Gatani Raju’s Meta (formerly Facebook) profile says that he is from Siddipet and associated with the state Congress party.
The incident took place at around 1 pm at Surampalle village in Doultabad mandal of Siddipet district. Siddipet Commissioner of Police N Swetha told TNM that Kotha Prabhakar Reddy has been sent to Hyderabad for medical treatment, and that the police are investigating into the incident to ascertain the cause of the attack.
“A First Information Report (FIR) will be filed after a complaint is received. The attacker has also been sent to Hyderabad to a hospital as he was also injured and not in a position to speak,” Swetha said. Videos shot from the incident spot show BRS workers thrashing a limp Gatani Raju, who fell to the ground, after he stabbed Kotha Prabhkar Reddy. Raju reportedly came forward to meet the MP on the pretext of shaking his hands and then proceeded to attack him.
The Dubbak seat is currently held by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Raghunandan Rao. He won the bye-election in 2020 after ex-BRS Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy passed away. Reddy’s wife was nominated by the BRS, but she lost the seat to the BJP by a margin of over a thousand votes.
The Telangana Assembly polls are also slated to be held on November 30, and counting will be held on December 3. The ruling BRS is looking to win a third time. The main opposition is the Congress. The BJP, which was positioning itself as the BRS’s main challenger over the last few years, however is still a second option for any leader who is defecting between the BRS and the Congress.
The BRS won 88 seats in the previous 2018 state elections. The Congress and the Telugu Desam Party, which had then formed an alliance, managed to win only 21 seats together, while the BJP got just one seat in Hyderabad.