Telangana elections: Turncoats spice up contest in crucial constituencies in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: With majority of turncoat MLAs, who won on TDP tickets in the 2014 assembly elections in Greater Hyderabad, now contesting as TRS nominees and Congress joining hands with Chandrababu Naidu’s party as part of Prajakutami to counter the pink party, the electoral battle in the city has become interesting in several constituencies.

Kukatpally constituency, where voters of Andhra origin are in sizeable number, is witnessing an interesting contest between TRS candidate Madhavaram Krishna Rao, TDP nominee Nandamuri Suhasini, grand-daughter of the late NTR, and BJP’s Madhavaram Kantha Rao. In 2014, Krishna Rao had trounced TRS candidate by a margin of 43,186 votes. Later, Krishna Rao crossed over to the ruling TRS. As Andhra-origin voters play a deciding role in Kukatpally, Naidu has been campaigning in Andhra pockets for the past few days. Similarly, KT Rama Rao too addressed road shows in the constituency. The poll outcome will indicate who has the last laugh.

Serilingampally and Qutbullapur, abutting Kukatpally, too have a huge number of voters of Andhra origin. In 2014, TDP candidates won both the seats. In the December 7 elections, Arikepudi Gandhi, who had won over TRS candidate in 2014 with a margin of 76,257 votes in Serilingampally, is contesting as the pink party’s nominee this time. TDP has fielded industrialist Anand Prasad. Congress leader and ex-MLA Bhikshapathi Yadav, who came third in 2014 with 43,384 votes, was upset over the seat being handed over to TDP as part of People’s Front truce, threatened to contest as a rebel. Later, on the intervention of senior leaders, he withdrew from the contest and agreed to support the TDP candidate. Rahul Gandhi and Chandrababu Naidu have campaigned in Serilingampally. It will be interesting to see who supporters send to the assembly.


In Jubilee Hills, Maganti Gopinath, now a TRS candidate, had won with a wafer-thin margin of 9,240 votes over MIM candidate V Naveen Yadav as a TDP candidate in 2014. Congress stood third with 33,642 votes, followed by TRS with 18,436 votes. MIM did not field a candidate this time and P Vishnuvardhan Reddy of Congress is in the fray. How TDP and MIM supporters vote, would be the deciding factor in Jubilee Hills.