Malkajgiri: Fight among BJP, Congress and TRS

The constituency that has constantly been in the limelight for Parliament elections also provides an interesting political scenario for the Assembly elections. Numerous candidates have grappled to acquire their party ticket to contest from this constituency. Malkajgiri’s demography makes it an interesting constituency for the upcoming polls. The constituency boasts of having a high literacy rate of 69 per cent and it has a large number of Seemandhra settlers.

The constituency was created after delimitation in 2009. It has Alwal, Macha Bolaram, Yapral, Defence Colony, Moula-Ali, Old Malkajgiri, Gautham Nagar and Safilguda divisions. There are 4, 46,337 voters in the constituency, out of whom 2, 16,287 are female voters and 2, 30,003 are male voters. Congress’ Akula Rajender is the sitting MLA. There are more than 500 colonies and most residents are employees and workers. There are nearly 100 slums in this constituency and their votes hold the key.

The current sitting MLA Akula Rajender of the Congress, apprehensive about not getting the party’s ticket, joined the TRS hoping to secure a ticket. But all his hopes were shattered as the TRS decided to field Chintala Kanaka Reddy who is the party incharge for the Malkajgiri constituency. The Congress is fielding N Sridhar, a close follower of Union Minister Sarve Satyanarayana. The incumbent Rajender accused Satyanarayana for devising a conspiracy against him. His cadre is likely to campaign against N Sridhar.

The BJP is fielding N Ramachandra Rao, spokesperson for the Bar Council of India. The Lok Satta Party is fielding Dilip Sankarreddy, a business professional, environmentalist and a poet. Chandra Supriya, a visually challenged High Court lawyer is being fielded by the Aam Aadmi Party.

Most of the political parties did not released the names of their candidates initially for this constituency. It was only after a lot of brainwork and strategy that the parties fielded their candidates.

The constituency is likely to witness a close battle among all the parties. The T-sentiment would be shared by the TRS, the BJP and the Congress. The Lok Satta and AAP parties will try and woo the educated masses of the constituency. The TRS is likely to persuade the settlers by promising to protect their interests. The Congress and the BJP too are banking on the same promise. It is likely that the BJP, the Congress and the TRS would engage in a close combat.