Confident of Gajwel, KCR to fight from 2nd constituency?

HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao is likely to contest from another Assembly constituency apart from his home turf, Gajwel.

Sources said the TRS president is considering contesting from one more Assembly constituency on the request of party leaders. Speculation is rife that he may contest from Medchal Assembly seat, for which the candidate has not been announced by the party yet. This is not the first time that KCR would be contesting from two seats. However, while he had contested for an Assembly (Gajwel) and Lok Sabha (Medak) seat in the 2014 elections, if he goes for a second seat this time, it would be the first instance of him contesting from two Assembly seats. After the 2014 polls, KCR had resigned the Medak LS seat making way for TRS candidate Kotha Prabhakar Reddy to win from there and enter Parliament.



While all opposition parties are eying Gajwel to secure the seat at any cost, TRS leaders are confident that the people of Gajwel will repose faith in KCR and re-elect him with a thumping majority on the confidence that the Assembly segment has witnessed development like never earlier in the last 60 years. In the 2014 elections, Chandrasekhar Rao had emerged victorious from Gajwel, defeating TDP candidate Vanteru Pratap Reddy (now in the Congress) by a margin of 19,390 votes. Another candidate Thumkunta Narsa Reddy, who contested on Congress ticket and joined TRS post elections, was placed third. Last week, Narsa Reddy returned to Congress and is likely to campaign for Pratap Reddy, who is likely to be Congress candidate this time.

TRS has announced its first list of candidates with 105 candidates of 119 seats on September 6, including the Gajwel segment. Later, names of two more candidates were announced.

When asked about it, TRS spokesperson Karne Prabhakar told TOI on Monday: “While there is no proposal for KCR to contest from two Assembly segments, there are requests from various districts such as Nalgonda asking him to contest from their area.”

TRS leaders said there was nothing wrong if KCR contests from two seats. NT Rama Rao had contested from Hindupur and Kalwakurthy Assembly segments in the 1989 elections. While he won from Hindupur, he lost from Kalwakurthy against Congress candidate Chittaranjan. Similarly, Praja Rajyam Party president Chiranjeevi contested from Tirupati Assembly constituency and his native town Palcole segment in the 2009 elections and won from Tirupati and was defeated in Palacole.