KCR announces nominees for four LS seats

Hyderabad: The BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao on Monday announced the party candidates for four Lok Sabha segments of Karimnagar, Peddapally, Khammam and Mahabubabad after holding a meeting with leaders from Khammam and Mahabubabad at Telangana Bhavan. A day before he had a meeting with the Karimnagar and Peddapally LS constituencies. As per decision taken, former Planning Board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar was once again given ticket from Karimnagar. Vinod had earlier served as MP from there; he had lost to Bandi Sanjay in 2019 polls. The Peddapally seat was given to former minister Koppula Eshwar, who had lost the Assembly election from Dharmapuri. The party chief had faith in him and was given ticket. In the past Venkatesh Netha was the party MP in 2019; but he joined the Congress recently.

KCR accepted the demand from BRS leaders to give ticket to party floor leader in the Lok Sabha Nama Nageswara Rao. In a meeting on Monday the leaders had adopted a resolution seeking ticket once again to Nama for Khammam and Maloth Kavitha for Mahabubabad. Kavitha was once again given the opportunity from the party. Interestingly, Bhadrachalam MLA Tellam Venkat Rao skipped the meeting called by the BRS chief. He had raised speculation of deserting the party after he met CM Revanth Reddy along with Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy on Sunday. Rao is said to be close to Ponguleti; it is speculated that he will join the Congress on March 11.

Meanwhile, KCR said there was no loss even with leaders deserting the party. According to sources, he had said soon three coordinators would be appointed for each constituency. “There will be ups and downs in politics. Even leaders like NT Rama Rao had faced jolts in elections. The Congress party is already facing criticism from people; the BRS leaders should take this as an advantage,” said Rao.