Telangana Polls 2023: Congress rebel files nomination in Choppadandi

Nagi Shekhar, after filing his nomination as a rebel candidate, is campaigning using the photographs of AICC leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi

Karimnagar: Congress dissident Nagi Shekhar has filed his nomination in the Choppadandi assembly constituency after the party denied him a ticket and instead opted to field Medipally Satyam.

Shekhar, after filing his nomination as a rebel candidate, is campaigning using the photographs of AICC leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. A native of Ramadugu mandal headquarters, Shekhar has been working for the party for the last 22 years. However, the party allocated the ticket to Satyam, who had contested in 2018 as well. Shekhar was denied a ticket on the grounds that surveys by the party in the segment found the mood was against him, party leaders said.

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It is learnt that Shekhar was upset over as the party gave ticket to a non-local candidate. He said he had told the party’s State leaders that Choppadandi has a history of electing SC (Madiga) community leaders since the population of the community was high in the segment. All the MLAs, who got elected since formation of the segment, belong to the Madiga community. Right from former MLA Bodige Shobha to sitting legislator Sunke Ravishankar, all were from the Madiga community. Hailing from the same community, Shekhar wanted the party to allocate the ticket to him.

While Madiga voters are about 50,000, the Mala community is about 13,000 strong. The Congress has allocated the ticket to the Mala community, Shekhar said, asking how the survey could predict that a Mala community leader had more winning chances. While other political parties were giving tickets to Madiga candidates, the Congress was allocating the seat to Mala leaders for the last 20 years, he alleged.