Telangana Assembly elections: Senior leaders to stay away from battlefield

Hyderabad: Due to various reasons, several senior leaders from all main political parties are away from poll battle in the upcoming Assembly elections. Former ministers, former MPs and others are among them. In the seat  adjustments, some leaders of the Mahakutami lost their home constituencies Among them are Mr L. Ramana, Mr E. Peddireddy and Mr Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy and from the TD, former ministers  Mr M. Sashidhar Reddy, Mr P. Shankar Rao, Mr A.  Chandra Sekhar and Mr R. Damodar Reddy  from the  Congress, former minister  G. Vinod, Warangal zilla parishad chairperson Tula Uma and others from the TRS.

The most affected leaders are in the TD due to the alliance with the Mahakutami.  Telangana TD president L, Ramana was elected four times in the past from Jagityal Assembly constituency and has also served as a minister. 

In the previous elections, he was defeated by Congress candidate T. Jeevan Reddy from Jagityal. In the seat adjustment, the Congress retained the seat. Initially, Mr Ramana planned to shift to Korutla Assembly constituency but finally dropped the idea.

TD politburo member Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy was elected from the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha constituency and also from the Wanaparthy Assembly constituency. In the previous Assembly elections Congress candidate G. Chinna Reddy won from this constituency. In the interests of the Mahakutami, Congress leader Chinna Reddy came forward to sacrifice his seat but Ravula did not agree. So with no constituency, Ravula has decided to be away from the poll war.

Former Minister E Peddireddy won thrice from Huzurabad in the past and this time he decided to contest from Kukatpally assembly constituency and this was even accepted by the TD leadership.  But at the last minute, Nandamuri Suhasini emerged as the TD candidate from Kukatpally and Peddireddy had to sacrifice his seat. 

Former minister from Nizamabad district Mandava Venkateswar Rao also decided not to contest in the elections.

Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) President Kodandaram earlier decided to contest from Jangaon assembly constituency for the first time. In the seat adjustment, Congress also agreed to allot the Jangaon seat to TJS. But after it became a controversy,  Kodandaram sacrificed the Jangaon seat to the Congress former Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah who won four times in the past from this constituency.

In the Congress, former Ministers M Sashidhar Reddy, P Shankar Rao, A Chandrasekhar and several District congress Committee Presidents did not get tickets. 

Due to age factor, social equations and seat adjustment in the Mahakutami, they were not able to get the seats. The one ticket for one family rule also had several family members of senior leaders not being able to do poll battle.

In the TRS, the former Minister G Vinod aspired for the Chennur assembly ticket but it was allotted to MP Balka Suman. In the past, Vinod won once from this constituency and was defeated 6 times. 

Adi Srinivas who was defeated in the previous assembly elections as the BJP candidate from Vemulawada assembly constituency, has been given the Congress ticket from the same constituency. Raj Thakur who was defeated in the past was given the Ramagundam ticket by Congress.