Electioneering yet to pick up pace

Warangal: Ever since Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) dumped its sitting MLA Konda Surekha from the Warangal East constituency, the seat has become cynosure of all eyes, initially due to leaders’ overenthusiasm in criticising the Konda couple and later on for the ticket.

The TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao who kept a host of aspirants – former MP Gundu Sudha Rani, former minister Basavaraj Saraiah, senior leaders Gudimalla Ravi Kumar, Errabelli Pradeep Rao and others – on tenterhooks for over a couple of months finally zeroed in on Mayor Nannapuneni Narender’s candidature. It is learnt that even though KCR made up his mind over Narender’s candidature, he kept his cards close to his chest waiting for the Congress-led Maha Kutami to announce its nominee.

The Maha Kutami which dillydallied over announcing its nominee till the end finally allowed both the candidates of the Congress and the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) – Vaddiraj Ravichandra, popularly known as Gayatri Ravi, and Gade Innaiah - to stay in the fray, terming it as a friendly contest.

Both the Congress and the TRS heaved a sigh of relief on the last day of the nominations when quite a few rebels withdrew from the election. With the TRS leadership jumping into the action, both its rebels – Errabelli Pradeep Rao and Neelam Raj Kishore – stepped out of the polls so that to make it easy for Narender. Even though three of the Congress rebel candidates withdrew from the election, the Congress seems to be in trouble with former SAAP Director Rajanala Srihari, who is reportedly to join the TRS in support of Narender.

It may be mentioned here that in all, 37 candidates filed their nomination for the Warangal East constituency. Of which nominations of eight candidates have been rejected due to various reasons and another eight withdrew their papers, leaving 21 in the poll fray.

Nannapuneni Narender (TRS), Vaddiraj Ravichandra (Congress), Kusuma Sathish (BJP), A Kishore (Samajwadi Party), Gade Innaiah (TJS), P Kishore (New India Party) and Siddam Rambabu (Bahujan Left Party) are the candidates from the recognised parties, and the other 14 are independents.

Even though there is little time left for the December 7 polling, the electioneering is yet to pick up steam. As of now, both the TRS and the Congress candidates - Narender and Ravichandra - are maneuvering their forces for a high-octane campaigning.