When popular television personality and journalist Teenmaar Mallanna contested the by-elections to Huzurnagar assembly seat one-and-a-half years ago, he got just 894 votes, which was lesser than the votes polled under NOTA.
But in the MLC elections from the Khammam-Nalgonda-Warangal graduates’ constituency, Mallanna is virtually giving the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi a run for its money.
In the seven rounds of counting of the first preferential votes in the MLC polls, Mallanna stood second with 83,390 votes, as against 1,11,014 votes polled by high profile TRS candidate Palla Rajeshwar Reddy and there are indications that he might even take the No. 1 position, at the end of second preferential votes.
Such is the popularity of Mallanna is that he has pushed even seasoned leader of Telangana Jana Samithi Prof M Kodandaram to the third position with just 70,265 votes. Unless some magic happens, Kodandaram cannot win the election.
“The real battle has just begun. Securing 83,000-odd votes of graduates without spending a penny, while fighting the massive money and muscle power the TRS candidate is not so easy. I am sure I will make up for the deficit in the second round,” Mallanna said.
He said it was heartening to find people, employees, unemployed and students searching for him somewhere in the 39th position in the ballot paper and voting for him. “This was the result of my 10 per cent hard work.
Another 90 per cent work is still pending to do. If I do it, the ruling TRS will not get even deposit and my ultimate goal is to pull them down from the throne,” Mallanna said.
Teenmaar Mallanna, whose original name is Chintapandu Naveen Kumar, is now a popular name in Telangana households for his reportage and his often satirical and bold takes on social and political issues.
He has triple Masters — MA (Political Science) and Masters of Communications and Journalism (MCJ) from Osmania University and MBA (Master of Business Administration) from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU).