KCR to storm Cong citadel of South Telangana

Hyderabad: With the inauspicious month of Ashadham having come to an end, BRS Supremo K Chandrashekar Rao has embarked on assessing the party strength in various districts particularly in South Telangana like old Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar, Khammam and Rangareddy districts where the opposition Congress has strong cadre support.

KCR seems to be of the view that the bull should be taken by its horns. He said Telangana has been achieved after a very long struggle and since the formation of the state, the BRS government had taken up development as a “task and worked as a team to achieve it during the last nine years.”

Along with this campaign line, the BRS head is also making efforts to poach Congress leaders from Nalgonda district.

It feels that there was a need to poach important leaders from the 12 Assembly constituencies in these districts which are represented by Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, K Jana Reddy and N Uttam Kumar Reddy.

In the 2018 elections, the TRS won 11 out of 12 seats. In the byelection to the Huzurnagar assembly segment held in 2019, the Congress had lost the seat to BRS. But in the wake of the changing political scenario, KCR does not want to take any chances.

The BRS wants to poach second-rung leaders in every assembly constituency. It has created a task force to take up operation ‘Akarsh’. According to sources, the task force led by G Jagadish Reddy in this part succeeded in roping in Yadadri -Bhongir district Congress president K Anil Kumar Reddy who joined the BRS in the presence of KCR at Pragati Bhavan.

To counter the loss that had occurred following the exit of two leaders Jupally Krishna Rao and MLC K Damodar Reddy, the BRS chief held talks with some senior Congress leaders. Speculations are rife that they would soon announce their resignation from Congress and join BRS.

Senior Congress leaders from Ranga Reddy district are also said to be in touch with KCR after the speculations of BRS leader and MLC P Mahendar Reddy quitting.

KCR also focused on poaching Congress leaders from Khammam district to offset prominent leader Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy switching from BRS to Congress. BRS is not strong in this district. Last time it had won only 1 out 9 seats from this constituency.