Congress senses BRS weakness in Rangareddy, looks to make hay

Hyderabad: Congress leaders are looking to target the erstwhile undivided Ranga Reddy district area, claiming that government employees and youths were unhappy with the government over an array of undelivered promises and land issues.

The erstwhile district comprised Ranga Reddy, Vikarabad and Medchal-Malkajgiri, accounting for 14 Assembly constituencies in urban, semi-urban and rural areas.

The urban Medchal-Malkajgiri district consists of Medchal, Malkajgiri, Kudlapur, Kukatpally and Uppal constituencies, which are populated mainly by state, Central government and railway employees. TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy is the MP.

DCC president of Medchal-Malkajgiri district Nandikanti Sridhar said: “State government employees are against the government. The RTC employees, who were ill-treated for nine-and-half-years, were co-opted at the last minute as government employees. Such last-minute gimmicks, as experimented by erstwhile CM Chandrababu Naidu, by granting ‘pasupu kunkuma’ at the last minute will not work. The BRS got the benefit in 2014 and 2018 as the party which secured statehood for the region.”

Unemployed youth are not happy, while promises like BC Bandhu and Dalit Bandhu will not cut much ice with the public, said Sridhar, who claimed he was the sole contender for the party’s Malkajgiri nomination. “Such promises, if given to a select few, work to the disadvantage of the government. BRS lost heavily as it gave '10,000 compensation to very few people after floods,” he said.

Sridhar also cited the failure to construct a degree college in Turkapally, despite being promised by the CM, and allotting houses in Malkajgiri Assembly constituencies as key poll issues.

Congress leaders in Vikarabad are waiting for AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s Chevella visit to announce the SC Declaration to provide an impetus to their campaign.

Vikarabad district, mostly rural, has four constituencies: Kodangal, Parigi, Tandur and Vikarabad.

 “We are exposing how the BRS has failed the SC/STs. The SC sub plan, as originally passed by the government, has been changed. The funds were diverted for other purposes,” said T. Ram Mohan Reddy, DCC president of Vikarabad and Parigi ex-MLA.

Ram Mohan said that the takeover of assigned land was a key issue, as such land parcels are being handed over to private parties.

“We are promising full rights over assigned lands. Many want to sell their land according to market rate. Another issue is failure to take up Pranahita-Chevella project brought in by YSR. If completed, it would have benefited us. The failure to take up the Vikarabad to Matkal railway line and the slow pace of work on the National Highway via Chevella will be issues in the polls. In all, works worth '5,000 crore were kept pending by the state government,” Ram Mohan Reddy said.

The Ranga Reddy district, in its current iteration, has five Assembly constituencies: LB Nagar, Maheswaram, Ibrahimpatnam, Chevella and Rajendranagar. There are multiple contenders in some of these constituencies.

In LB Nagar, Jakkidi Prabhakar Reddy and Ram Reddy are expecting tickets, while Maheswaram pits DCC president Challa Narasimha Reddy against Depa Bhaskar Reddy, Enugu Janga Reddy, C.H. Parijatham and Y. Mahender Reddy and Kotha Mahendar Reddy, who joined the party along with Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy.  

Teegala Krishna Reddy, who was expected to switch from the BRS to the Congress, withdrew his plan after a patch-up with the incumbent minister Sabitha Indra Reddy.

 “The issues in the polls are takeover of assigned lands, improper water supply, high tax on houses, unemployment, stoppage of fee reimbursement for students and flooding owing to lack of proper underground drainage,” said Challa Narasimha Reddy, DCC president of Vikarabad.