Wardhannapet all set to vote for BRS, Congress busy addressing infighting

Assembly Constituency : Wardhannapet (SC)

District: Warangal

MLA: Aroori Ramesh

Reservation: SC

Total Voters: 2,55,518

Booths: 278

Urban Voters: 69%

Rural Voters: 31%

Male: 50.20%

Female: 49.80%

Caste & Religious Demography

Gen + OBC: 74.10%

SC: 19.40%

ST: 6.50%

Hindu: 88.90%

Muslim: 9.00%

Others : 2.1%

Candidates

Aroori Ramesh (BRS)

Aroori Ramesh won the 2014 and 2018 elections on the BRS ticket and his percentage of votes increased from 66.04 percent to 69.35 percent making him a formidable force in the constituency which was once dominated by the TDP in the form of Errabelli Dayakar Rao. He defeated Kondeti Sridhar (BJP) who was then in the Congress in 2014 and Devaiah of TJS in 2018.

K.R. Naga Raju (Congress)

KR Nagaraju is facing internal trouble with certain groups of the party defying the party ruling and opposing the candidature of Nagaraju. The Namindla Srinivas faction is up in arms against the party-nominated candidate. The party in Wardhannapet is split into two. Unmindful of the internal strife, he is travelling around and spreading the word about the six guarantees of the Congress party.

Kondeti Sridhar (BJP)

Kondeti Sridhar won the Wardhannapet seat in 2009 on a Congress ticket. He lost the 2014 elections on a Congress ticket to Aroori Ramesh but stood second.

Assembly information

Geography: It is an urban constituency and part of the Warangal Parliamentary Constituency. Hanamkonda mandal is part of this constituency. This constituency lies on the Warangal-Khammam Highway. Hasanparthy, Hanamkonda, Parvathagiri and Wardhannapet mandals are part of this Assembly constituency

Background: In the 2008 delimitation, this constituency was reserved for the SC community. Velama community plays a very important role in this constituency. Earlier, th TDP was very strong in the political fight was between the TDP and the Congress. But after delimitation and formation of Telangana State, the TRS was able to pull down both the Congress and the TDP.

Before delimitation, Errabelli Dayakar Rao won three successive elections (1994,99,2004) on the TDP symbol.

Lambada population forms a major part of ST votes.

Big leaders in the TRS like Vinod Kumar, Kadiyam Srihari, Errabelli Dayakar Rao are from Parvathagiri mandal which is part of this constituency.

BJP till recently held Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation elections won four divisions out of 12, while coming second in 2 divisions

MLA Profile

Personal details: He was born on April 4, 2023 and completed M.A (Sociology) from Kakatiya University in 1995. He has completed LLB. ​Two criminal cases are pending against him.

Profession : Business, Contractor

Political Background: He started his political journey with the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP). In 2009, He contested as MLA candidate for the Ghanpur constituency from the PRP but lost.

He joined the TRS in 2014 and contested the 2014 Assembly elections and won

He again contested in 2018 Assembly elections and won with nearly a lakh of votes margin.

Financially he is very strong

2014 Assembly analysis: Aroori Ramesh contested on the TRS symbol from this constituency. Wardhannapeta being a hotbed for the Telangana movement, the TRS was able to win the constituency very easily. Manda Krishna Madiga (fighting for horizontal reservation in SC category) contested as an independent candidate, The BJP-TDP alliance supported his candidature. He took away the majority of Madiga votes,. Other SC community votes split between the TRS and the Congress. The TRS was able to secure a majority of Velama and BC community votes.

2018 Assembly analysis: The TRS was able to win this constituency very easily because of the strong cadre and popular leader Aroori Remesh. The TJS is a primary opponent, it is in alliance with the TDP-INC. The TJS has no presence in this constituency, the Congress cadre didn't support tTJS candidate Devaiah Prgidipati (who left the BJP and joined the TJS). The TRS was able to consolidate its votes in Velama, BC, and Madiga communities thereby defeating the opponent by nearly a lakh of votes.

Key Local Issues

• BRS MLA Aroori Ramesh is very active in the constituency,
• Ramesh was able to build a strong cadre in this constituency
• The BJP doesn't have leadership and the party structure is also very weak.
• The Congress has cadre, but lacks strong constituency level leader
• The Congress is facing internal trouble and non-cooperation