Kamal Raju, Kanakaiah likely to be lucky in Khammam

Khammam/Kothagudem: With curtains coming down on Parishad elections, the political parties and their leaders have now shifted their focus to Zilla Parishad chairman post. In both Khammam and Bhadradri-Kothagudem districts, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi swept the polls leaving no chance for other parties to have a say in selection of ZP chairman post.

While in Khammam, Lingala Kamal Raju has been trying his best to net the seat, which is reserved to SC general, in Kothagudem, formal MLA Koram Kanakaiah is likely to become the ZP chairman, the seat which is reserved to ST general.

It is learnt that Kamal Raju, who lost the Madhira MLA seat in the Assembly elections held in December last, has been given assurance by the party to elevate him to ZP chief post before the conduct of elections. In this regard, Kamal Raju contested the Madhira ZPTC seat and won the polls with over 5,519 votes majority against rival Congress candidate A Ravi Kumar. Kamal Raju bagged a total of 15,338 votes.

It can be recalled that out of 20 ZPTC seats, the Congress could only bag three seats i.e., of Thirumalayapalem, Bonakal and Kamepally, while TRS was successful in winning Raghunadhapalem, Penuballi, Sattupalli, Vemsoor, Kallur, Tallada, Konijerla, Enkoor, Mudigonda, Errupalem, Khammam Rural, Wyra, Kusumanchi, Nelakondapally, Karepalli, Chintakani and Madhira ZPTC seats. Further out of 289 MPTCs in Khammam, TRS won 289, Congress 58, CPI 7, CPM 14, TDP 5 and others 37.

Coming to Bhadradri-Kothagudem, former MLA Koram Kanakaiah has good chances of being elected as ZP chairman. The former MLA from Yellandu won the Tekulapally ZPTC seat with a majority of 5,081 votes against Congress party candidate. Earlier, he was defeated by Congress candidate Banoth Haripriya in the Assembly elections held last year. However, Haripriya later defected to TRS.

Of the 21 ZPTCs, the TRS won Allapally, Annapureddypally, Palvoncha, Pinapaka, Karakagudem, Aswapuram, Tekulapally, Chunchupally, Sujatha Nagar, Dummagudem, Aswaraopet, Burgumpahad, Manuguru, Yellandu, Julurpad and Dhammapet, while the Congress could win Charla, Chandrugonda and Mulkalapally ZPTC seats. Out of 209 MPTCs, TRS won 118, Congress 26, CPI 17, CPM 9, TDP 10, New Democracy 10 and others 19.