Khammam: Despite Congress surge, BRS wins Bhadrachalam

Out of ten Assembly seats in erstwhile Khammam district, BRS has won one seat as the party candidate Dr. Tellam Venkata Rao won in the Bhadrachalam assembly seat

Khammam: Out of ten Assembly seats in erstwhile Khammam district, BRS has won one seat as the party candidate Dr. Tellam Venkata Rao won in the Bhadrachalam assembly seat.

In a tough fight, he won by a majority of 6,319 votes against Congress candidate sitting MLA Podem Veeraiah, who also happens to be the party district president. It was a rather surprise victory for BRS, as Congress candidates won in all the constituencies while a CPI candidate supported by Congress won in Kothagudem. It was the third time Venkata Rao contested in the Assembly election and he lost in the last two elections. It was said that the sympathy factor and effective poll management by the election in-charge of MLC Tata Madhusudhan helped Dr Venkata Rao to win the election.

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It might be noted that Dr. Venkata Rao along with former MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy joined Congress before the elections. Later he came back to BRS and was given the party seat. It was being rumoured that the MLA elect might join Congress under the influence of Srinivas Reddy, however, he has not made any statement with regard to switching his loyalty. It since worth mentioning that the BRS, since the 2014 election, was being limited to a single Assembly seat in erstwhile Khammam district. In 2014, the party candidate Jalagam Venkata Rao won Kothagudem seat and in the 2018 election Puvvada Ajay Kumar won Khammam seat.