Hyderabad: BRS throws challenge by declaring candidates early

Hyderabad: While the opposition parties are yet to have a plan for the next Assembly elections, the BRS party has already started announcing candidates in constituencies where there is no scope for tussle between the leaders.

The BRS leadership has already announced candidates in almost half a dozen constituencies giving clarity to the leaders to go ahead with their plans.

Earlier, BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao would declare the candidates. Even during the previous elections in 2018, the BRS chief had announced 105 candidates at one go. However, the party seems to have changed its stand and wants the leaders to focus on elections.

The BRS leaders including the party’s working president KT Rama Rao and Finance Minister T Harish Rao are touring districts and seeking support to their candidates. The leaders have been appealing to people to ensure victories of their leaders with more margins than they had given during the previous elections.

The first candidate to be announced was Padi Kaushik Reddy. The BRS working president during his visit to Huzurabad, announced the candidature of Kaushik Reddy. Recently, during his visit to Devarakadra in Mahbubnagar, Rama Rao asked people of the constituency to make sure A Venkateshwar Reddy wins with not less than one lakh votes this time.

Similarly, Harish Rao during his visit to Narayankhed had appealed to the voters to once again vote for Bhupal Reddy. The BRS working president during his visit to Karimnagar, wanted the people to elect V Sathish from Husnabad with a majority of one lakh and also elect B Vinod Kumar as MP from Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency. He said that the people had elected a mad man from Karimnagar. Had they voted Vinod Kumar, he would have got an IIM to the State. The State Assembly elections are likely to be held any time after October and like previous occasion, the candidates would be announced much before the poll schedule is announced.

The party leaders, however, were cautious on the constituencies where there is a tussle between the leaders. The BRS working president had visited Station Ghanpur and also Kalvakurthy but he did not make any announcement on the candidates as there are more than one candidates seeking tickets.

A senior leader of the party said that more clarity would come after the BRS chief has a one to one meeting with the MLAs. The party chief would inform the MLAs whether they will be in fray or they would lose tickets, the BRS leader said.