HYDERABAD: Former MLA Prem Singh Rathore, credited with bringing development to the Goshamahal Assembly constituency, and leading a BRS surge in the last Assembly elections, has emerged as the top contender for the party ticket for the upcoming polls.
Rathore, who joined the BRS (then TRS) in 2016, started his political career with the TD. He shifted to the BJP and won from Goshamahal (called Maharajganj before delimitation) in 1999.
It was his show in the 2018 elections that saw the BRS rise to a power to be reckoned with in Goshamahal, from a party that was just about present.
In the 2014 elections, the BRS won 6,312 votes and was in fourth place in Goshamahal. In 2018, with Rathore as its candidate, the BRS votes surged to 44,120 and the party rose to the second place with a 14.4 per cent vote share gain, even as the BJP percentage fell by 13.5.
Rathore, who was chairman of the Musi River Development Corporation, resigned from the post to contest the polls. Though he came second, his work in the constituency revealed that the BRS was there to stay, and could grow further under his leadership.
The BRS leadership is aware of Rathore’s potential, sources said, adding that the development that Goshamahal witnessed was thanks to his work. His call for a link road through the constituency to the Old City areas led to a widening of roads after he questioned then Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on his claims of making ‘Old City a Gold City.’ His effort to get two overhead water tanks constructed, one at the State Central Library, and the other in Feelkhana, is well known.
Rathore was instrumental in the construction of three community halls, six schools, and six vyayamshalas in the Goshamaha constituency area. There was also the conversion of a nala near Gowliguda Chaman where Rathore’s persistence for its improvement led to the laying of a concrete road covering the nala. This opened a new stretch of road for users.
Party sources said Rathore was ahead among ticket aspirants and was likely to be named the BRS candidate for Goshamahal with the party leadership favourably inclined towards his candidature. The leadership is aware of Rathore’s contribution in pulling the BRS up from nowhere to the second place and the potential he has to get Goshamahal into the BRS basket for the first ever time, the sources said.
