Adilabad: The Adilabad Parliament segment, once a bastion of the Congress, TDP and later the BRS, has turned into a stronghold of the BJP with the party now having one MP and four MLAs from the erstwhile district.
The constituency, reserved for scheduled tribes, went to the polls 19 times since the creation of the district in 1952. While the Congress won eight times, the TDP won six times. The BRS has won twice while a Socialist party candidate had won in the first ever elections of the constituency. The BJP registered its first victory through Soyam Bapu Rao in 2019. It has now retained the constituency with Godam Nagesh.
Party leaders attribute the victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign in the district, while Nagesh had promised to revive the CCI unit, a railway line between Nirmal and Armoor and to address major challenges of the district if elected. The BJP also banked on the support of four of its MLAs representing Adilabad, Mudhole, Nirmal and Sirpur (T) constituencies. It ensured the four legislators worked in tandem for the victory of Nagesh and had also taken steps to curb internal bickering among the MLAs and leaders, all of which have apparently given results.
The party was successful in garnering electoral support not only in the four Assembly constituencies represented by its MLAs, but also in the remaining three segments. The share of votes for the BJP had gone up from 12 percent in the Assembly polls-2018 to 36 percent in the 2023 elections.