Churning begins in BRS Mancherial, leaders may quit

Adilabad: Former BRS MLA Gaddam Aravind Reddy of Mancherial and the party’s ex-MLC Puranam Satish of Chennur, both of whom have been denied party tickets to contest from Mancherial, are consulting their supporters to decide on their future course of action.

Focus has turned on these two leaders as to what they would do, now that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has declared sitting MLA Diwakar Rao as the BRS candidate from Mancherial constituency.  

Relations have already been strained between Puranam Satish of Chennur and Chennur MLA Balka Suman. Satish is a senior BRS leader who played a key role in the Telangana agitation in the coal belt area of Mancherial and Komaram Bheem Asifabad district. But his political influence came down after Balka Suman contested and won the Chennur seat in the 2018 elections.

Puranam Satish had hoped he would get another term as MLC. But this did not happen. He then tried for the MLA ticket under Brahmin quota from Mancherial, but did not succeed.

Congress leader N. Sridhar of Mancherial said news is doing rounds that Puranam Satish is likely to join Congress.

Former MLA Aravind Reddy is also not happy with the BRS high command after sitting MLA Diwakar Rao has been retained to contest from Mancherial. Aravind has demanded that CM Chandrasekhar Rao change the candidate, otherwise, he will have to make a decision about his political future. He has already held an Athmeeya Sammelanam meeting with his supporters to elicit their opinion on the present political situation. There is speculation that Aravind Reddy may join BJP if his supporters agree to it.