Adilabad: Candidates vie for BSP ticket for Adilabad Lok Sabha elections
Many opting to party-hop with the hope of getting a ticket.
Adilabad: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, political equations are fast changing. Candidates who aspired to get tickets and were refused, are switching their loyalties. Many are opting to party-hop with the hope of getting a ticket.
Confusion prevails over which leader will join which political party, and who will get a ticket at the last moment.
Unlike in the Assembly elections, this time the Congress has already announced the name of Ramesh Rathod as its candidate. For the Adilabad Lok Sabha seat, the Congress has already begun filing nominations even before the TRS candidates could be announced.
News is that the BJP is trying to lure former MLA Soyam Bapurao and Naresh Jadhav into its fold to field any one of them as their candidates.
Congress candidates who were denied party tickets are now trying for tickets from the BJP and the BSP.
Speculation is that the TRS may field sitting MP Godam Nagesh as its candidate in the Adilabad Lok Sabha seat, which is reserved for the STs. In the Assembly elections, there was only a 1.4 lakh difference of votes between the TRS and Congress in the old Adilabad district.
In the previous Lok Sabha elections, BSP candidates got more than one lakh votes in the Adilabad seat. Many candidates have expressed interest to contest under the BSP ticket for the Adilabad Lok Sabha seat.
The BSP has some presence among the Dalits and OBC communities, especially in Adilabad, Kumarambheem and Nirmal districts, and also from people who have migrated from Maharashtra to Adilabad.
The BJP is looking for a strong and popular candidate to represent the party from the Adilabad seat. The party does not want to make the same mistake it did in the Assembly elections. In the Assembly elections, BJP candidates polled a good number of votes in Adilabad, Nirmal, Khanapur and Mudhole Assembly constituencies.
BJP leaders and cadre feel that the fight for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections would be between the BJP and Congress and not with the TRS. National issues will influence the voting pattern in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.