All sitting TRS legislators of integrated Karimnagar district have secured the party tickets in the upcoming elections. However, it seems Choppadandi legislator Bodige Shoba is more likely to be denied party ticket, presumably for poor performance in the assembly segment.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, while releasing the list of 105 candidates for the elections said, he kept the candidature of Choppadandi assembly segment in abeyance for the time being. The TRS rank and file seemed to have lodged a complaint with the party high command seeking denial of party ticket to Shobha for her alleged adamant attitude since the last four years.
There were also instances of the legislator abusing the officials and local bodies’ elected representatives in the segment on various occasions in the name of Shobakka Gallanna Synam (SGS), threatening to register SC\ST atrocities Act cases against them. Last year, the legislator along with her husband had even thrashed a toll plaza staff at Renikunta on Rajiv rahadhari in Karimnagar district for stopping her vehicle at a toll plaza.
The party rank and file had even raised a banner of revolt against the sitting legislators in Ramagundam and Vemulawada assembly segments, demanding that the party not allocate tickets to them in elections. But the Chief Minister went ahead and announced the candidature of sitting legislator Somarapu Satyanarayana for Ramagundam and Ch Ramesh Babu for Vemulawada assembly segment.
It may be recalled that the TRS had won from 12 assembly segments out of a total of 13 assembly segments in the integrated Karimnagar district in 2014 elections. This time, the party has given tickets to all the sitting legislators barring Choppadandi. Incidentally, Jagtial TRS candidate Sanjay Kumar, who lost to Congress candidate T. Jeevan Reddy, was again fielded from Jagtial assembly segment for the coming elections.
Positions retained
The TRS announced the party candidates for all the ten Assembly seats in the undivided Khammam district. The supporters of the candidates, whose names had been declared by the party leadership, burst into celebrations in both Khammam and Bhadradri-Kothagudem districts on Thursday.
Kothagudem MLA Jalagam Venkat Rao, who won from the Kothagudem Assembly seat on the TRS ticket in 2014 general elections, has been re-nominated by the party high command to contest the imminent elections from the same constituency. Incidentally, Mr Rao was the lone MLA to have won on the TRS ticket in the entire undivided Khammam district in the first elections to the Telangana Legislative Assembly held in 2014.
Minister for Roads and Buildings Tummala Nageswara Rao, who joined the TRS in September 2014 after parting ways with the TDP, got elected on the TRS ticket from Palair Assembly constituency in the by-election held in May 2016. He will contest the next hustings from the same constituency as the party high command finalised his candidature for Palair seat.
Khammam MLA Puvvada Ajay Kumar and Yellandu MLA Koram Kankaiah, who had won on the Congress party tickets in the 2014 Assembly elections, later joined the ruling TRS. Similarly, Aswaraopeta MLA Thati Venkateshwarlu, Wyra MLA Banoth Madan Lal and Pinapaka MLA Payam Venkateshwarlu got elected on the YSR Congress party tickets in the maiden elections to the Telangana Assembly. They had subsequently joined the ruling TRS, individually. The TRS leadership has finalised the candidatures of Mr P Ajay, Mr K Kankaiah, Mr T Venkateshwarlu, Mr Madan Lal and Mr P Venkateshwarlu enabling them to contest from the constituencies represented by them in the just dissolved Telangana Assembly.
The TRS has chosen Dr Tellam Venkat Rao as the party candidate for Bhadrachalam ST reserved Assembly constituency, the traditional bastion of the CPI (M).
The SC Corporation chairman Pidamarthi Ravi and the TRS district leader Lingala Kamalraj has been handpicked by the TRS for the Sattupalli and Madhira Assembly constituencies respectively. S Venkata Veeraiah of the TDP and the TPCC working president M B Vikramarka had represented the Sattupalli and Madhira constituencies respectively in the dissolved State Assembly.