Competition for BRS tickets intensifies in Mancherial, Nirmal districts

 ADILABAD: Competition for party tickets within the ruling Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti has increased in some assembly constituencies of the erstwhile Adilabad district. Rival leaders are vying more intensely following news that the ruling party high command is looking for alternate leadership in certain constituencies of the state.

In this regard, former BRS MLCs and defeated candidates are seriously lobbying for party tickets in Mancherial and Nirmal assembly constituencies.

Former MLC Puranam Satish of Chennur is vying for the ticket from Mancherial, projecting himself as a representative of the Brahmin community. He is meeting associations of Brahmins and their leaders to canvass for his ticket. Puranam had played an active role in Telangana agitation. He strengthened the party in the coal belt of Mancherial district.

Former MLA Gaddam Aravind Reddy, considered a close associate of KCR during the Telangana agitation, is also aspiring for the ticket from Mancherial. Promised a good post by KCR, Aravind, who continues to have good hold in the coal belt area of Mancherial constituency, had extended support to sitting MLA Nadipelli Diwakar Rao twice in the past and ensured Diwakar’s victory.

But Diwakar Rao wants the Mancherial ticket for himself. However, in case he is not considered owing to his advanced age, he wants the Mancherial ticket for his son Vijit. Vijit has been active politically and had undertaken a padayatra in villages of the Mancherial assembly constituency last month.

K. Srihari Rao, who contested on the BRS ticket from Nirmal twice but got defeated, has since been side-lined by minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy.  But Srihari Rao has not given up. He has been campaigning against Indrakaran Reddy, questioning his autocratic and unilateral decisions, accusing him of neglecting senior party leaders.

Former zilla parishad chairman V. Shobha Rani’s husband V. Satyanarayana Goud is also lobbying for the party ticket from Nirmal. But he faces a tough task, as senior leader Indrakaran Reddy wants to promote leaders from within his family, unless the party high command takes a decision to the contrary in Nirmal assembly constituency.