KCR sets ball rolling for electoral battle

Khammam: TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao set the ball rolling for the electoral battle with announcing the dissolution of the State Assembly and announcing the first list of 105 candidates for the Assembly elections which also included 10 names from erstwhile Khammam district.

With the announcement candidates by the ruling party, all the key parties are getting ready for the electoral battle in the erstwhile Khammam district. The contest is rated as significant by all political parties, since it would be the second Assembly elections to be held after creation of Telangana as a separate State.

In 2014 polls, that were held immediately after Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh, the TRS party won 63 out of 119 Assembly seats and 11 out of 17 Lok Sabha seats. In erstwhile Khammam district, the TRS party had won only one out of the 10 seats in the district and four seats were won by the Congress party, three by YSR Congress party, one each by TDP and CPI respectively.

Subsequently, both Congress and YSRCP saw six (three each) of their party MLAs shifting their loyalties to the TRS. The Conress also lost one by-poll which went in favour of the ruling party.

Interestingly, contesting a the Congress party candidate in 2014 Assembly elections, Puvvada Ajay Kumar defeated Tummala Nageswar Rao of TDP in Khammam constituency but later shifted his loyalty to TRS. In Palair Assembly constituency, Ramireddy Venkatareddy won against Baby Swarna Kumari Maddineni of TDP and after his demise the Roads and Buildings Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao won the Palair Assembly by-poll. 

In Madhira, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka won against Lingala Kamal Raju of CPI. Koram Kanakaiah won Yellandu seat defeating Banothu Haripriya of TDP. Except TPCC working president Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Puvvada Ajay Kumar and Koram Kanakaiah who won on the Congress tickets shifted their loyalties to TRS party.

Three MLA’s of Pinapaka, Aswaraopet and Wyra, Payam Venkateshwarlu, Thati Venkateshwarlu and Banothu Madan Lal who won on YSRCP ticket also joined the ruling along with Khammam MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy.

The TRS had won only one seat in erstwhile Khammam district of Kothagudem, Jalagam Venkat Rao who won against Vanama Venkateshwara Rao of YSRCP and lost to TDP in Sattupalli (Sandra Venkata Veeraiah) and to CPI (Sunnam Rajaiah) in Bhadrachalam.

Keeping in view of that the TRS party has initiated the candidate selection process for the 2018 Assembly elections after conducting more than 15 surveys and announced the names early in order to give them substantial time to prepare for the crucial battle of the ballot.