Bhadrachalam Assembly constituency, once part of Madras State, has a unique history

Famous for the historic Sri Sitaramachandra Swamy Temple, Bhadrachalam Assembly constituency, with the lowest number of electors in erstwhile Khammam district, has a unique history.

Kothagudem: Famous for the historic Sri Sitaramachandra Swamy Temple, Bhadrachalam Assembly constituency, with the lowest number of electors in erstwhile Khammam district, has a unique history.

It is the only Assembly constituency in Telangana that was once part of the erstwhile Madras State. In the first General Elections held in India from October 1951 to February 1952, Bhadrachalam went to polls as a part of Madras State. It was then a two-member constituency with a general seat and a reserved seat. K Bapanna Dora (Reserved) and YU Krishna Rao (General) were its first MLAs. In the 1955 elections, Bhadrachalam was also a two-member constituency in East Godavari district of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. It was represented by Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party in 1952 and by CPI in 1955.

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In a bye-election held in 1957, Congress won the seat. CPI won the seat again in 1962. In the general elections held from 1967 to 2018, CPM won the seat eight times and Congress won the seat four times. TDP never won here.

In 1959, Bhadrachalam revenue division was merged into Khammam on geographical and administrative grounds. Bhadrachalam constituency originally consisted of Kunavaram, Chintoor, VR Puram, Yetapaka and Bhadrachalam mandals. After Reorganisation of AP in 2014, the Centre merged villages in those mandals, except Bhadrachalam revenue village to the Successor State of AP, as they were under submergence of area of Polavaram irrigation project. Following this, half of the constituency’s electors were transferred to AP.

Paving the way for Assembly elections in Telangana, Election Commission of India (ECI) on September 22, 2018 issued a gazette notification to include the villages in merged mandals with Rampachodavaram (ST) Assembly constituency of AP.

Bhadrachalam Assembly is part of Mahabubabad Lok Sabha constituency and is now spread over Wazeedu and Venkatapuram of Mulug district, Cherla and Dummugudem mandals along with Bhadrachalam (Revenue village). As on November 11, there were 1,48,661 electors in the constituency, of them 71,437 were male voters and 77,220 were female voters while there were 44 transgender voters. There were 13 candidates contesting for the seat including Dr. Tellam Venkata Rao of BRS, sitting MLA Podem Veeraiah of Congress and Karam Pullaiah of CPI(M).