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Journalism of Courage
With Telangana headed for the Assembly polls on November 30, the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), led by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao or KCR, and its two main challengers, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have stepped up their campaigning across the state. The BRS, which is attempting to return to power for the third consecutive term, had clinched the 2018 Assembly elections by winning 88 out of the state’s total 117 seats as against the Congress’s 19 and the BJP’s 1.
Here are several key constituencies to watch out for across the state in the upcoming polls:
Hyderabad region seats
The crucial Assembly constituencies include the 24 urban and semi-urban seats in and around the state capital. These constituencies in Hyderabad and erstwhile undivided Ranga Reddy district encompass the IT corridor and pockets inhabited by people from Andhra Pradesh and other states. Political parties have carried out voter enrolment drives in each municipal ward of these areas, with many migrants getting registered to cast their votes this time. Apart from the BRS, the BJP and actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party (JSP) are eyeing these seats.
In the 2014 elections, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had won 15 of these 24 seats, although at least 10 of these MLAs had later crossed over to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (renamed as BRS). In the 2018 polls however, the TDP’s vote base shifted to the BRS, which won 20 of these seats, which include Pattancheru, Medchal, Malkajgiri, Quthbulaapur, Kukatpally, Uppal, LB Nagar, Rajendranagar, Serilingampally, Khairatabad, Jubillee Hills, Sanathnagar, Goshamahal, Secunderabad, Secunderabad Cantt in addition to the semi-urban seats of Ibrahimpatnam, Maheshwaram, Chevella, Shadnagar, Jadcherla, Musheerabad, Pargi, Tandur and Vikarabad.
Winning these seats would be crucial for the three major contenders, even as the elections are expected to be a triangular affair. The JSP is contesting eight of these seats — Kukatpally, Uppal, LB Nagar, Malkajgiri, Serilingampally, Patancheru, Qutubullapur, and Sanathnagar — where the votes might be further split.
In the Goshamahal seat, the sitting BJP MLA T Raja Singh, who has been suspended by the saffron party, will contest as an Independent candidate if he is not granted a ticket by his party.
In the 2014 polls, the BJP had also won four other seats — Uppal, Musheerabad, Amberpet, and Khairatabad — which it lost to the BRS in 2018. The upcoming elections will determine whether the BJP has regained its vote base in these constituencies.
Besides, there are seven seats in Old Hyderabad — Charminar, Nampally, Chandrayangutta, Bahadurpura, Malakpet, Yakutpura, and Karwan — which are considered to be the stronghold of the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM, a BRS ally.
Khammam region seats
In the erstwhile undivided Khammam district, the five Scheduled Tribes (STs)-reserved seats
— Bhadrachalam, Aswaraopeta, Wyra, Yellandu, and Pinapaka — and two Scheduled Castes (SCs)-reserved seats, including Madhaira and Sattupalli, are going to be crucial. Despite a pro-BRS wave in 2014 and 2018, people of these constituencies had voted differently.
In the previous polls, the Congress had won the Pinapaka, Yellandu, Madhira, and Bhadrachalam seats while Aswaraopeta and Satthupalli were bagged by the TDP, with the Wyra seat clinched by an Independent candidate. It is another matter that almost all of these MLAs had later defected to the BRS.
Kamareddy seat
In this seat in Kamareddy district, KCR will take on veteran Congress leader and former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir, who was defeated in the constituency by the BRS’s Gampa Govardhan in the 2018 election. Shabbir is the key Muslim face of the Congress which is perceived to be resurgent following its victory in the May Karnataka polls.
Apart from the Kamareddy seat, the CM will also contest from his existing Gajwel constituency, which is spread across Siddipet and Medak districts. He has said he is contesting from two seats following “requests” from his party leaders.
BRS vs BJP seats
In the Assembly segments of the Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Secunderabad Lok Sabha seats, the 2018 Assembly polls and the 2019 parliamentary elections threw up different results. In the Adilabad Lok Sabha constituency won by the BJP’s Soyam Bapu Rao, the BRS had won all seven Assembly seats in the 2018 polls. In neighbouring Nizamabad, the BRS also bagged all the seven Assembly seats in 2018, only to see the party’s then incumbent MP K Kavitha, KCR’s daughter, losing to the BJP’s D Arvind in 2019.
The BRS also won six out of seven seats under the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency in the 2018 Assembly elections, with BJP candidate Etela Rajender winning from Huzurbad seat. However, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP’s Bandi Sanjay Kumar, the party’s ex-Telangana unit chief, won from the Karimnagar constituency. Similarly, the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency, won by the BJP’s G Kishan Reddy, the Union minister and state BJP president, had been swept by the BRS in the 2018 polls.
