Tumkunta Narsa Reddy, the former MLA who quit TRS and rejoined Congress in October and Vanteru Pratap Reddy who left TDP and joined the Congress in May in the presence of the party president Rahul Gandhi, are set to give jitters to KCR.
Hyderabad: With less than two weeks to go for the Telangana elections, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) may receive a severe jolt as chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) might find it difficult in his own Assembly constituency, Gajwel.
Tumkunta Narsa Reddy, the former MLA who quit TRS and rejoined Congress in October and Vanteru Pratap Reddy who left TDP and joined the Congress in May in the presence of the party president Rahul Gandhi, are set to give jitters to KCR.
Going by the data of the previous Assembly election, out of 2,27,333, KCR secured 86,660 votes, which is 44.42%. Similarly, his close rival Pratap Reddy, the then TDP contestant got 67,303 votes - 33.48%. Narsa Reddy, the Congress candidate, got 34,085 votes - 17.46%.
Keeping the 'Reddy factor' in mind, after the formation of the government, KCR welcomed Narsa Reddy into the TRS fold and made him Road Development Corporation chairman. Now close to the elections, Narsa Reddy blamed KCR and his close associates of sabotaging his political career by sidelining him.
"To meet KCR, it takes two months. A leader should first respect his workers. Here in TRS, I was humiliated to the core. Whenever he comes to the guest house, his party men ask me to wait. He is not approachable. He does not even answer our phone calls. A leader should always be with the people, whether he wins or loses. In KCR’s case, it is not happening. Hence I rejoined my parent party and I will work for the Congress party to come to power," Narsa Reddy said.
Pratap Reddy, who had earlier come close to winning the Gajwel seat, is hopeful that he can make it count this time.
Criticising KCR of doing family politics and ignoring the development of the state and the promises made in the elections last time, Pratap Reddy said, "KCR said that he will keep his family members out of politics, but his son KTR (KT Rama Rao) is calling the shots. The other promises they made were to have a Dalit CM, create employment and two-bedroom houses for the poor. They also promised many infrastructure projects, but nothing happened. He (KCR) criticised the BJP but later took their help."
KCR, who belongs to the Velama community, may find it tough on his own turf as these two Reddys have joined the Congress. Since Gajwel Assembly has a sizeable Reddy population and the political parties which cash in on these factors, KCR may find it difficult to win in Gajwel.
A source in TRS said that the opposition parties, Congress and TDP plan to limit KCR only to his Assembly segment as they fear, if he tours the rest of the state, the ruling party will sweep the polls.
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