Poll Hat-trick Anyone? There Are 66 in the Fray in Telangana in the Race

HYDERABAD: If his party wins the elections, BRS president and Chief Chandrashekar Rao, will be pulling off the near impossible feat of a hat-trick that is unprecedented in South India.

Beyond that, Rao leads the list of politicians who are have won twice after the Telangana state was formed, and are looking for their own personal hat-trick.

Chandrashekar Rao who won twice as MLA from Gajwel, in 2014 and 2018, and is contesting the coming elections from there, in addition to Kamareddy.

While BRS has the likes of ministers K.T. Rama Rao, T. Harish Rao, Gangula Kamalakar, V. Srinivas Goud, Vemula Prashant Reddy, and Talasani Srinivas Yadav seeking a third straight win, there are also the seven MLAs from AIMIM, who are expected to be nominated by their party who too will be in this race.

Also finding place in the long list of potential hat-trick performers is Congress leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka from Madhira (SC) constituency, and if nominated by his party, the BJP which currently has him under suspension, T Raja Singh who won in 2014 and 2018 from Goshamahal.

Not all BRS MLAs or ministers who are in with the possibility of hat-trick performances had won the 2014 election on a BRS ticket. They had been elected from other parties but had later switched to the ruling party. These include ministers A. Indrakaran Reddy who won on a BSP ticket in 2014, Puvvada Ajay Kumar who won on a Congress ticket, and Errabelli Dayakar Rao and Srinivas Yadav won on TD tickets.

Several other BRS MLAs contesting this time round too had switched to the ruling party after having won in 2014 as candidates either for the Congress, or the TDP, and even the CPI as in the case of R Ravindra Kumar from Devarakonda (ST) constituency.

Also in the race for a hat trick is Etala Rajendar, BJP MLA from Huzurabad who won in 2014 and 2018 on TRS tickets and won the byelection in 2021 on a BJP ticket. Though technically he has already won three straight elections, the third was a bypoll and not the general election.