Congress Yet to Decide on Warangal and Karimnagar LS Candidates
Karimnagar: Even as the BRS and BJP have announced their candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, who have started their campaign, the Congress is caught on a sticky wicket vis-à-vis the Warangal and Karimnagar parliamentary constituencies.
There are two each Lok Sabha seats each in erstwhile the Warangal (Warangal and Mahbubabad) and Karimnagar districts (Karimnagar and Peddapalli). The Warangal and Peddapalli constituencies are reserved for the Scheduled Castes communites and Mahbubabad for the Scheduled Tribes communities while the Karimnagar seat is in the general category.
The BRS has nominated its MP Malothu Kavitha from Mahabubabad, Kadiyam Kavya and daughter of former deputy chief minister and Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari from Warangal. It has fielded former MP Boinapally Vinod Kumar from Karimnagar and former minister Koppula Eshwar from Peddapalli.
The BJP has selected two BRS defectors, Prof. Azmeera Seetharam Naik for Mahbubabad and Aroori Ramesh for Warangal, retained MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar from Karimnagar and picked Gomase Srinivas for Peddapalli.
The Congress leadership has announced the names of Porika Balram Naik from Mahbubabad and Gaddam Vamshi Krishna, son of Chennur MLA Gaddam Vivekananda, from Peddapalli but suspense continues as regards the Warangal and Karimnagar seats.
Of the seven Assembly segments under the Warangal seat, the Congress won Warangal East and West, Palakurthy, Parkala, Wardhannapet and Bhupalpally, while the BRS won Station Ghanpur.
In the Karimnagar parliamentary seat, four of the seven Assembly segments were pocketed by the Congress —Choppadandi, Vemulawada, Manakondur and Husnabad — while the BRS won Karimnagar, Sircilla and Huzurabad.
Around 14 candidates are vying for the party ticket from Karimnagar, including Algireddy Praveen Reddy, Velichala Rajendar Rao, Chinthapandu Naveen alias Theenmar Mallanna, S. Santosh Kumar, Regulapati Ramya Rao, Meneni Rohit Rao, Rudhra Santosh, Uppu Ravinder, Singireddy Suman Reddy and Polsani Sneha.
From Warangal, around 15 members are in the race, including Harikotla Ravi, Gundeti Rajaram, Boddu Sunitha, Adanki Dayakar, l. Shoban Kumar, Paranjyothi, Pidamarthi Ravi, Mothkapalli Narasimhulu, Surve Satyanarayana, Singarapu Indira, Namindla Srinivas, Dommati Sambaiah, Dr Rama Krishna, Dr Sugunakara Rao, Dr R. Parameshwar and Bharati.