Telangana Polls: KCR shuts door for haggling with early declaration of candidates

HYDERABAD: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) has proved to be the front runner in the electoral fray of Telangana Assembly by announcing the nearly full list of contestants on behalf of the BRS in the upcoming Assembly elections.

He came so well prepared for the Monday’s press conference that he asked his aides to distribute the list to journalists even before he began the press conference. He reinforced his belief in auspicious time by announcing that he stuck to the “muhurtham” decided by pundits.

Beginning his address with an emphatic reference to the change in candidates in seven Assembly seats currently represented by the party, KCR said he would be contesting from two seats - his native Gajwel and Kamareddy.

He gave concession to his loyalist Kalvakuntla Vidyasagar Rao, MLA from Korutla Assembly constituency, by obliging to field the MLA’s son and renowned spine surgeon Dr Sanjay in Vidyasagar Rao’s place.

KCR disappointed the party warrior Krishank Manne who aspired for the Secunderabad Cantonment seat by fielding the late MLA G Sayanna’s daughter Lasya Nanditha.

While all ministers, including Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, were renominated, KCR fielded Medak MP Kotha Prabhakar Reddy to contest from Dubbaka Assembly seat, currently represented by BJP.

He kept his word and fielded MLC Padi Kaushik Reddy from Huzurabad seat represented by Eatala Rajender of the BJP. By announcing candidates for almost all the Assembly seats, KCR obviously shut the doors for anyone nursing an ambition to secure a BRS seat by crossing over into the party from other parties.

By renominating almost 90 per cent of the candidates, KCR tried to dispel the misgiving, being campaigned by the opposition, that there was anti-incumbency. As he had announced it himself, the selection of candidates was based on multiple surveys.

By his categorical announcement that there would be no truck with the Communist parties, KCR made it clear that the BRS, as always, would go it alone to the polls. By giving license to most of his team mates in the Assembly, he presumably wanted to silence the charge or family politics about which the Congress anyway cannot talk owing to obvious reasons.

By the large-scale renomination of contestants, the BRS supremo tackled down the charge of corruption. The Congress party’s allegations of corruption on the BRS would only remain a rhetoric as Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A Revanth Reddy is still facing court proceedings on the cash for vote case in which he was seen in full public glare in TVs when he had handed over Rs.50 lakh to an Anglo-Indian MLA in 2015.

By asserting that deliverance and continuing of the good work as his poll plank, KCR tried to drive home the point that numerous schemes, promised and also not promised in manifestos, were implemented much to the delight of different sections of society in the State. By nominating 39 candidates belonging to Reddy community, he chose to highlight that Reddies are inseparable form politics of all political parties in the State and that they couldn’t be counted on rallying behind one particular party, though the Congress and the BJP wanted to cast an influence on the community by having their presidents of Telangana units drawn from the caste.

A beaming KCR was seen fully charged up and ready to lead the charge against the opposition from the front. Renominating all his Cabinet colleagues is surely a measure that could keep their confided levels revved up.