Congress keen to wrest Khammam from BRS

Khammam : Congress, which has won all the six segments in the recent assembly elections, is now gearing up to capture Khammam Parliament seats with the same momentum. Out of the seven assembly seats under the Khammam MP segment, the Congress won six seats and the Congress-backed CPI candidate won with a huge majority.

The Congress had won 11 times from Khammam LS seat twice. CPM won twice, People’s Democratic Front, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), YCP and BRS candidates won only once. BJP, which is counting on Modi’s charisma and Ayodhya Ram temple consecration, is handicapped by a big lack of cadres.

Congress polled 2.63 lakh votes more than BRS in seven segments combined. Aspirants for its tickets believe if they get the Congress ticket, their victory is assured. As many as 12 leaders applied for the ticket; Renuka Chaudhary is out of the race as she has been given the RS nomination. Prasad Reddy, the brother of Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Nandini, wife of Deputy CM Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, and VVC group chairman Rajendra Prasad are among the strong contenders for the ticket from the party.

BRS won the 2019 elections here. There is a chance that Nama Nageswara Rao will once again enter the ring on behalf of the pink party. He had earlier won as MP once on behalf of TDP. He joined BRS a few days before the 2019 election nominations and won that election in view of the current developments. His candidature was announced by the party chief KCR during the election campaign at Sathupalli during the Assembly polls.

BJP is also seriously moving pawns to win the seat. In 2019 elections, the party polled just 20,000 votes. In assembly polls, its candidates did not even get deposits. Noted industrialist Tandra Vinod Rao, popular doctor G Venkateswarlu are in the race for the ticket from the BJP.

CPI and Congress contested together in the last election. These two will work together in the Parliament elections, too. However, the CPM contested the assembly elections separately. In view of being a partner in the INDIA alliance, it may join hands with the Congress party. In the past, Tammineni Veerabhadram won the Khammam MP. At present, he is the state secretary of CPM.