Not two much: KCR set to win Lok Sabha, Assembly seat

Hyderabad: The Lok Sabha constituency of Medak was once once represented by perhaps the biggest political personality of independent India, Indira Gandhi. The late prime minister was the MP of Medak at the time of her assassination – she had retained Medak and resigned from her traditional Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh soon after the mid-term polls in 1980. The seat is currently represented by movie artiste Vijayashanthi, who calls herself Telangana local on behalf of the TRS. However, she has now crossed over to the Congress and is contesting for the Medak assembly seat from the party. The redoubtable Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao will retain Gajwel assembly seat and resign from Medak Lok Sabha constituency if he is elected from both. In such an event, why should anybody vote for him in the Lok Sabha election? Wouldn’t it thrust yet another election on the voters of this constituency? KCR is used to forcing at least one extra election on the voters ever since he floated the TRS 13 years ago. But unless something goes drastically wrong, KCR will win both seats hands down. [caption id=“attachment_1498337” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] KCR is unlikely to lose either of the seats. PTI[/caption] The ordering of a CBI probe into the assets of KCR by a court on Friday will definitely become a poll issue across Telangana. KCR has locked horns with Sravan Kumar Reddy, a practising doctor in Hyderabad, who is in the fray on behalf of the Congress, and Chagalla Narendranath of the BJP. Dr Reddy was with the YSR Congress, until he was nominated by the Congress from the Medak Lok Sabha seat and pitted against the ‘mighty’ KCR. Politically speaking, two Davids are taking on one Goliath, but the idea of either of them knocking down KCR is too far-fetched. KCR’s contest from Gajwel assembly segment, forming part of the Medak Lok Sabha constituency, is in itself a big boost for the protagonist of the 13-year-long agitation for the formation of Telangana. It is perhaps the only bloodless agitation that the democratic India witnessed in the last 67 years since it attained independence. The BJP nominee from Medak, Narendanath, is no political novice. He contested as Congress candidate against Vijayashanthi in 2009 and made it a very tough fight. She barely managed to scrape through with a slender margin of 6,077 votes and it was purely thanks to the majority secured in Siddipet assembly segment alone. KCR, who never lost an election since 1985, is cocksure of his victory and the entire TRS cadre is oozing confidence about the result in Medak. KCR has completed a mammoth public meeting in Gajwel. The TDP cadre in this constituency migrated to the TRS in the recent past, enhancing the chances of KCR securing a record majority. Congress candidate Shravan Kumar Reddy is pinning his hopes on the five Congress MLAs who represent regions that are part of this Lok Sabha constituency. Though he hails from the constituency, Reddy is unable to connect with the people. The Siddipet assembly constituency has been a citadel of KCR’s family for three decades now and his nephew T Harish Rao is seeking a re-election from here. He is confident that it would be a cakewalk for him and KCR in the elections. KCR’s choice of Gajwel for the Telangana assembly is the result of a well-orchestrated campaign much before the elections.  Though the TDP has fielded Prathap Reddy and Congress has current legislator Narsa Reddy, neither of them is a match for KCR’s political acumen or popularity. KCR’s agricultural farm is also located in Gajwel and he frequents this place, inadvertently invoking a sense of nativity and belonging. This naturally has only boosted his popularity among the people of Gajwel. Though Telugu Desam Party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday tried his best to taunt KCR by asking him if he wasn’t confident of  and therefore was contesting the Lok Sabha and assembly seat, the TRS chief remained unfazed. Naidu said KCR wanted to be chief minister of Telangana and if that did not work, he would go to Delhi as an MP by resigning from the assembly seat. KCR responded by challenging Naidu at a public meeting in Nizamabad on Thursday. “I am throwing a challenge. Are you ready to accept it? I am ready. Anywhere and anytime. You decide. I will come,” Rao thundered. Describing BJP’s prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi as a ‘religious fanatic’ and affirming that Majlis Ittehaadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi as “our man”, the TRS supremo has wooed the Muslim electorate within Telangana. The promises of 2 BHK houses built on 125 sq. yard plots at a cost of Rs 3 lakh a unit and waiver of farm loans up to Rs 1 lakh are attractive to people. But the rank and file of the TRS are of the view that the people of Telangana will shower their party with ‘gratitude vote’, given KCR is almost singularly seen as responsible for the formation of a separate Telangana.