BRS chief K Chandrshekar Rao.
Credit: PTI Photo
Hyderabad: In an intriguing development, BRS chief, K Chandrashekar Rao's daughter MLC K Kavitha failed to secure a ticket from the party to contest from Nizamabad Lok Sabha segment from which she contested twice in the last two general elections and won once.
KCR on Wednesday evening announced party nominees to fight from four Lok Sabha segments including Nizamabad. Notably, KCR picked former MLA Bajireddy Govardhan instead of Kavitha to fight from Nizamabad Lok Sabha.
Kavitha won from Nizamabad in 2014 polls over Congress candidate, Madhu Yashki Goud. However, she lost to BJP's Dharmapuri Arvind in 2019 polls. In the ensuing Lok Sabha polls too BJP renominated sitting MP Arvind to contest from Nizamabad. It may be worth mentioning here that Kavitha is embroiled in Delhi liquor scam controversy. She was also questioned by CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Though there were expectations that Kavitha would be fielded again from Nizamabad she was not given a ticket. In a keenly contested election in 2019, Kavitha lost to Arvind with a margin of around 70,000 votes. Noticeably, Kavitha won with a majority of around 1.67lakh votes against Congress candidate Madhu Yashki Goud in 2014 polls.
A political analyst who has been tracking Telangana police over two decades told Deccan Herald, “It feels as if KCR is trying to do some image makeover to BRS as the party is maligned as a family run with his son KTR, nephews, T Harish Rao, Santosh Kumar and daughter Kavitha at the helm. He wants to get rid of that family tag that had cost the party dearly in last year's assembly polls. Maybe as part of that exercise KCR might have denied tickets to his daughter. Also BJP's Arvind has emerged as a strong contender. Nowadays, whether its assembly or other places, those leaders other than KCR family are being given priority."
In 2019 polls, establishment of turmeric board had turned into a politically rallying point at the last minute and many of the turmeric farmers had jumped into the electoral fray as independent candidates affecting the poll prospects of Kavitha and Arvind won.
Arvind promised to establish a turmeric board and won. Almost four and half years after the 2019 election just before assembly polls last year, prime minister Narendra Modi had announced turmeric board. Of the seven assembly segments that come under Nizamabad Lok Sabha, BRS won three, Congress two and BJP two in the last year assembly polls.
BRS on Wednesday evening announced that Dr Kadiyam Kavya would contest from Warangal, Gali Anil Kumar from Zaheerabad, Kasani Ganeshwar Mudiraj from Chevella, and Bajireddy Govardhan from Nizamabad.
KCR replaced two sitting MPs Pasunuri Dayakar from Warangal and Dr Ranjith Reddy from Chevella.
BJP drops Adilabad sitting MP
BJP that had announced candidates for six Lok sabha segments on Wednesday had dropped sitting MP of Adilabad, Soyam Bapu Rao. Of the six candidates, four are newcomers who joined BJP only last Sunday. BJP had renominated all the other three sitting MPs, G Kishan Reddy from Secunderabad, Arvind from Nizamabad and Bandi Sanjay from Karimnagar.
BJP picked former MP Godam Nagesh for Adilabad, Madhavaneni Raghunandan Rao for Medak, Gomasa Srinivas for Peddapally, DK Aruna for Mahabubnagar, former MP Prof Azmeera Seetaram Naik for Mahabubabad and former MLA Shanampudi Saidireddy for Nalgonda.
Seetaram Naik, Saida Reddy, Nagesh, are from the BRS and Srinivas is from Congress who all joined BJP only last Sunday.