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Journalism of Courage
One a fiery former BJP state chief and the other a heavyweight minister in the state government. And both with a history. The battle for Karimnagar in the Telangana Assembly elections next month has all the ingredients to be a nail-biting one.
Karimnagar will see a direct fight between Bandi Sanjay Kumar of the BJP and Minister for Backward Classes Welfare, and Food and Civil Supplies Gangula Kamalakar. Had the Congress fielded former MP Ponnam Prabhakar, as speculated earlier, it would have been a triangular contest but Prabhakar is now in the fray from Husnabad.
Kumar is the MP from the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat, having won for the first time in 2019 on back of the pro-Modi wave to defeat BRS (then it was the Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS) strongman B Vinod by 89,508 votes. Months earlier, in December 2018, he had lost to Kamalakar in the Assembly elections.
For Kamalakar, a top Backward Classes (BC) leader who was included in Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s Cabinet as Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Civil Supplies for the first time in September 2019, it was a third straight win from the seat. Yet, this time Kumar is expected to pose a more formidable challenge to him. Kamalakar won Karimnagar for the first time as a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) candidate in 2009. By 2014, he was in the TRS and won on its ticket in 2014 and 2018.
Kumar is expected to do well this time because his vote share rose last time around and is expected to continue on the upward curve this time too. In 2014, Kamalakar polled 77,209 votes (40.92% vote share) to defeat Kumar, who had polled 52,455 votes (27.8%), by a margin of 24,754 votes. In 2018, he polled 80,983 votes (40.71% vote share) to again beat Kumar, who polled 66,009 votes (33.18%), by a margin of 14,974 votes. In 2018, both Kamalakar and Kumar received more votes than in 2014 and while Kamalakar’s vote share declined marginally, Kumar’s rose by 5.38%.
Had the Congress had fielded Prabhakar, the contest would have been tighter. In 2018, Prabhakar received 39,500 votes (19.86%), which cut into the votes of both the BRS and the BJP candidates.
BJP leaders said Kumar, with his strong pro-Hindu image, was popular in the Karimnagar City area while Kamalakar’s grip was over Karimnagar Rural and Kothapalli, the two other areas of the constituency.
“Sanjay Kumar has become quite popular in Karimnagar City and surrounding areas. He kept himself in the media spotlight with his midnight arrest for alleged links in the SSC Hindi exam question paper leak case in April, his protest against transfer of teachers, and the one over the cancellation of Group 1 and Group 2 exams for government jobs. He is easily accessible, listens to people and tries to help them,” said K C Pratap, a local lawyer.
B Sitaramaih, a BC leader from the area, said, “Kamalakar is famous in these areas, especially among BC youths. He is well liked for setting up state-run BC study centres to help BC students prepare for competitive examinations. I think he is tough to beat.”
In the seven Assembly segments under the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat — Karimnagar, Chopadandi (SC), Vemulawada, Sircilla, Manakondur, Huzurabad and Husnabad — only Huzurabad has a BJP MLA, Etela Rajender. KCR’s son K T Rama Rao, the state IT minister who represents Circle, is expected to throw his weight behind Kamalakar.
