When Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced that he would be contesting from a second constituency Kamareddy, apart from his own Gajwel, everybody thought it must be a part of his strategy to brighten the prospects of his party.
Analysts felt that if a chief minster himself contests from Kamareddy, the party would have a lot of advantage not only in Kamareddy, but also in the adjacent Nizamabad district.
But field surveys ahead of the November 30 assembly elections in the state indicate that more than the advantage to the BRS in Nizamabad, it is the fear of facing a probable defeat in Gajwel that might have forced him to chose Kamareddy as the second constituency.
Reason: Much before the process of selection of candidates has begun, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former minister in the KCR cabinet Eatala Rajender has been hinting at contesting the assembly elections from Gajwel.
Though it is not so easy for Eatala to defeat the chief minister, there are a lot of factors that are working in his favour, surveys indicate. One, KCR is completely inaccessible to the people and he has hardly addressed their problems.
Though the state government spent hundreds of crores on the constituency and converted Gajwel into any other modern city, it is all superficial development and the chief minister has never bothered about the people’s problems in the constituency, media reports said.
In the 2014 contest, KCR faced a challenge from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) candidate Vonteru Pratap Reddy, who won 70,000 votes and ended up as a runner-up losing by just around 10,000 votes.
Congress candidate Tumkunta Narsa Reddy ended up in a third position. It was a cake walk for KCR in 2018, as Pratap Reddy who contested on the Congress ticket threw up his hands well in advance.
This time, the entry of Rajender and unrest among the voters are the main factors for KCR’s apprehension that the fight is going to be tough.
Apparently realising that he might face troubles, KCR called the local leaders to his farm house recently and assured that he would allocate more time for Gajwel in his next term.
Reports suggest that many voters of the Mudiraj community in Gajwel are rallying in support of Rajender in the constituency. Many backward caste (BC) community leaders have also expressed solidarity with him.
"Eatala is no pushover. He will definitely give Rao a run for his money," a media report said.