Grand Alliance & TRS poised for keen tussle

Serlingampally assembly constituency, noted for being a major hub of of IT companies and high-tech companies, is now a hotly contested seat between grand alliance of Congress and TDP, and ruling party TRS party.

Having a population of around 6 lakh voters, the constituency has people who have migrated from different states. Being one of the highly populated constituencies, it is expected to witness a keen contest. Once a part of Khairatabad, this constituency was formed in the year 2008 during the realignment of constituencies. Bikshapathi Yadav of Congress won the first election held in 2008, defeating his TDP rival Movva Satyanarayana by a slight margin.

In 2014, TDP candidate Arekapudi Gandhi drubbed Bikshapathi Yadav with a huge margin of 76,000 votes. But, with TRS party winning all the 10 divisions of the constituency in GHMC elections, Arekapudi Gandhi shifted his loyalties and joined the TRS party. He has been declared as TRS candidate in the forthcoming elections.

Suspense over selection

There is suspense over the selection of Grand Alliance candidate. Bikshapathi Yadav, Congress aspirant, has started his campaign, strongly believing that he will be selected as candidate. TDP aspirant Movva Sathyanarayana, who left TDP party after his defeat but joined the party recently, is yet another candidate who is trying to get party ticket on behalf of TDP. Another aspirant of TDP Bhavya Anand Prasad, head of Bhavya Cements and cine producer, has declared himself that he has the party blessings. Since Kamma community has significant vote bank in the constituency, the leaders from the community are keen on contesting from this constituency.

As TDP has secured a huge majority in the previous elections, TDP leaders want their party to contest from the seat on behalf of Grand Alliance. If GA allocates the seat to TDP, it is interesting to see if Bikshapathi Yadav extends his support to TDP or decides go it alone as independent candidate, as he had already threatened to do so. BJP party has selected G Yoganand, proprieter of Manjeera Groups, as its candidate, although four other local aspirants sought the party ticket. There were some protests against the candidate selections but the party managed to pacify the dissidents. Bahujan Left Front declared Tandra Kumar as its candidate.

Confusion within TDP

There is severe contest within TDP aspirants Movva and Anand Prasad for the party ticket. The party cadre is divided into two groups and campaigning independently. Recently, supporters of two groups fought against one another when Anand Prasad took out a rally. Party high command had to intervene and convince both the groups to wait until high command’s decision in this regard. As the Kamma community has significant vote bank in this constituency, both the leaders are confident of winning this seat.

Battle of wealthy

There is a keen contest among big businessmen to wrest the Serlingampally constituency. All the aspirants are big businessmen. TRS candidate Arekapudi Gandhi is chairman of a company and is a builder. While Movva Sathyanarayana is a real-estate businessman and owns Sainatha Real Estates Company, the other TDP aspirant Anand Prasad owns Bhavya Cements and is also a cine producer. Congress candidate Yadav also owns several businesses and is a wealthy person. BJP candidate G Yoganand is head of Manjira Group of companies and is keen to serve people for the first time. This constituency may witness fight between experienced businessmen.