Desperate Congress, BJP bank on former BRS leaders in 10 of 17 constituencies

The irony is all the more visible when it turns out that in some constituencies, both the Congress and BJP candidates are former BRS leaders.

Hyderabad: The bankruptcy for candidates in the Congress, in power in the State now, and the Bharatiya Janata Party, in power at the Centre for a decade, is evident when one realizes that in 10 of the 17 Parliament constituencies in Telangana, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi is fighting 13 candidates who were associated with the Congress.

The irony is all the more visible when it turns out that in some constituencies, both the Congress and BJP candidates are former BRS leaders.

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The Congress is yet to finalise candidates in four parliamentary constituencies, with indications that at least one is likely to have a former BRS leader as the party candidate.

The lack of leaders with winning potential in both the BJP and the Congress has seen both parties poaching leaders from the BRS, and continuing to do so. An interesting scenario unfolds in Malkajgiri and Chevella constituencies, where all three candidates share ties with the BRS.

The BRS vs BRS scenario in Malkajgiri has Ragidi Laxma Reddy of the BRS in a face-off with P Sunitha Mahender Reddy of the Congress and Etala Rajender of BJP, both of whom were previously associated with the BRS.

In Chevella, G Ranjith Reddy from the Congress and Konda Vishweshwar Reddy from the BJP were both former BRS MPs, and are now contesting against Kasani Gnaneshwar Mudiraj of the BRS.

Similarly, in Warangal constituency, Congress candidate Kadiyam Kavya, who recently quit the BRS, faces Aroori Ramesh of the BJP, who also recently quit the BRS. The BRS is yet to announce its candidate for Warangal.

The other former BRS leaders in the fray on behalf of the BJP are BB Patil (Zaheerabad), M Raghunandan Rao (Medak), S Saidireddy (Nalgonda), Boora Narsaiah Goud (Bhongir) and Azmeera Seetaram Naik (Mahabubabad).

The BJP’s Nagarkurnool candidate P Bharath Prasad, son of former BRS MP P Ramulu, too had recently joined the BJP along with his father. For the Congress, the fourth former BRS leader in the fray is sitting Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender from the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency.

With 13 rival candidates that BRS candidates have to fight being their former colleagues, the elections this time present quite an interesting scenario.