Battle Ground: Khairatabad to witness triangular contest

Hyderabad: Khairatabad, one of the important Assembly constituencies in the heart of the City, will witness a triangular fight among three major parties, including the BRS, Cong and BJP. With incumbent DanamNagender’s name cleared by the party to contest, the late P Janardhan Reddy’s daughter P Vijaya Reddy (local corporator), an active politician, remains the top contender from the Congress. While former MLA and party senior Chintala Ramchandra Reddy is most likely to be given another chance to reclaim the seat for the saffron party.

Khairatabad, which is a segment of the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency, has a total of 2,82,101 voters, including 1,34,862 women, as per the latest voter list (draft) published on August 21 by the Election Commission. With a sizable migrant population from AP in the constituency and having some mixed population of both rich and slumdwellers, it reflects the typical Telangana mix-up.

Will Vijaya get a chance from Cong ?

This Assembly election will be witnessing an interesting contest this time as the Congress is likely to field Vijaya Reddy, the third daughter of PJR, a ‘leader of masses’ and one of important leaders of Congress from yesteryears, who is still remembered for his welfare activities.

However, her prospects of getting the ticket may be dented if her history of shifting loyalties to different parties are considered. She joined the Congress after leaving TRS last year and contested from YSRCP in 2014. Khairatabad unit president Rohin Reddy is another aspirant from the constituency, who could get a chance if loyalty to party is taken into consideration.

Chintala to repeat 2014, if party clears his name

While Chintala enjoys clout in the party and in the constituency, despite top contenders from the party like youth leader Pallapu Govardhan, who this year scored politically from the Filmnagar land episode involving the incumbent, analysts believe Reddy is the best bet to defeat Nagender.

In 2014 Ramachandra defeated sitting MLA Nagender by over 20,000 majority and received 37.3% of vote share (53,102) while Nagender who contested on Congress tickets got 32,256 votes and Vijaya Reddy (YSRCP) secured 20,845 votes.

On his way to become MLC, Dasoju makes things easy for Danam

Later in 2018 Nagender, who by then had joined TRS, got maximum vote share of 44.56% (63,068) and trounced sitting member Chintala by over 28,000 majority. Dasoju Sravan Kumar (Cong) then was third with 33,549 votes. Sravan later joined the BRS and is slated to become MLC under the Governor’s quota.

The constituency, which before delimitation had the largest voter base in the State, has wealthy neighbourhoods of Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Raj Bhavan Road, Punjagutta, Somajiguda, Lakdikapul, Himayatnagar, Hyderguda and Narayanguda, besides Khairatabad.