Chevella incumbent's gamble fails to pay off for Congress

Hyderabad: Political gambling of Chevella constituency’s incumbent has failed to help him win this time. Despite huge investment of time by the State leadership including Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy during the poll campaign, the Congress lost the battle in one of the key constituencies.

Gaddam Ranjith Reddy, who had won from TRS (now BRS) in 2019, has lost this time to BJP candidate Konda Vishweshwar Reddy with a margin of over 1.7 lakh votes. Ranjith Reddy had switched his loyalties to Congress to secure a ticket from Chevella earlier this year, in wake of evolving political landscape in Telangana, following Assembly polls. Vishweshwar Reddy got over 8 lakh votes, while Ranjith Reddy received 6.3 lakh votes. The BRS leader KasaniGnaneshwar Goud was reduced to third position and got just over 1.7 lakh votes. The constituency of Chevella comprises Assembly segments Rajendranagar, Chevella, Serilingampally, Maheshwaram, Tandur, Vikarabad and Pargi.

In 2019, both Vishweshwar Reddy and Ranjith Reddy represented different political parties. While the latter contested from TRS (now BRS) and won with a slender majority over 14,000, the former had contested from Congress. Both got over 5 lakh votes from 13 lakh votes polled in the previous Lok Sabha elections. This is the second time Vishweshwar Reddy won from Chevella Lok Sabha after 2014. He had contested on TRS ticket and had won with a majority of more than 73,000 votes, following bifurcation of Telangana from unified AP.

While Vishweshwar Reddy joined BJP after losing hopes in the Grand Old Party, BRS leader Ranjith Reddy citing ‘evolving political circumstances’ joined the Congress, after getting assurance of the party ticket from Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy in March this year. This is considered to be big gambling ahead of the Lok Sabha polls for the incumbent who was already facing political challenges within the Chevella constituency.

Despite all the efforts by Revanth Reddy who held 9 meetings including the initial public meeting held on April 6 which was attended by Rahul Gandhi, Ranjith Reddy could not garner the support of the local leaders. Most of the party leaders felt betrayed following his induction into the Congress and failed to campaign for him wholeheartedly.