Hyderabad: “The art of victory is learned in defeat” This applies to caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and Opposition leader in the dissolved assembly and Congress senior leader K Jana Reddy. Both leaders started their political journey with defeat and now both are looking at creating history in the upcoming assembly elections.
Both Mr Rao and Mr Jana equalled the record of Congress leader late M. Baga Reddy by winning for the 7th time in the previous assembly elections. Baga Reddy had won all the seven times from Zaheerabad assembly constituency and four times in the Lok Sabha from Medak Lok Sabha constituency. In the combined Andhra Pradesh state, late Baga Reddy had thus created a record.
Mr Rao also won seven times from the Assembly and five times from the Lok Sabha. Congress senior leader K Jana Reddy has also won seven times in the Assembly elections but has never contested the Lok Sabha. Congress leaders Baga Reddy and Jana Reddy represented 7 terms of the assembly. But Mr Rao, although he won seven times, some of the victories were in by-elections and therefore did not represent seven terms. . For example, he won in the 1999 general elections but resigned in 2001 and again won in the by-election but he represented the house twice in the same term.
Both Mr Jana Reddy and Mr Rao left the TD and floated their own political parties. Before the 1989 assembly elections, Jana Reddy resigned from the Telugu Desam party and floated the political party “Telugu Nadu” with KE Krishna Murthy and D Ramachandra Reddy. But by the 1989 assembly elections he joined the Congress. Mr Rao resigned from the Telugu Desam party in 2001 and floated the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
For the first time, Jana Reddy contested the assembly polls in 1978 and Mr Rao contested in 1983. But both were defeated in their first attempt. Jana Reddy in 1978 contested from Chalakurthy as the Janata Party candidate and was defeated by the Congress candidate Nimmala Ramulu by 14176 votes majority. Mr Rao in 1983 contested from Siddipet as an independent candidate and was defeated by the Congress candidate A Madam Mohan with a 887 votes majority. Both Jana Reddy and the CM were defeated by Congress candidates in their first attempt.
Mr Jana Reddy won for the first time in 1983 to the Assembly as an independent candidate. Later he and Mr Rao joined the TD and both contestged the 1985 elections to the assembly as TD candidates. Jana Reddy won from Chalakurthy assembly constituency 5 times. After the delimitation of assembly constituencies, Chalakurthy constituency became Nagarjuna Sagar constituency and Jana Reddy won twice from this constituency.
Mr Rao won 6 times from Siddipet assembly constituency and in the previous assembly elections he contested from Gajwel assembly constituency and won.
He also won from Karimnagar, Mahabubnagar and Medak Lok Sabha constituencies. In 2004, he won from the Siddipet assembly constituency and also from Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency and later he resigned as the MLA from Siddipet assembly seat and kept the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency membership. During this five year term as MP, he resigned twice in 2006 and 2008 and won in the by-elections again.
In the five years term of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009, the CM won thrice. In 2009, he won from the Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha constituency. In 2014, he won from the Gajwel assembly constituency and also from Medak Lok Sabha constituency. Later he resigned the Lok Sabha seat and became first Chief Minister of Telangana state.
