Congress looks to step up Asifabad poll game with Saraswati’s induction
ADILABAD: The induction of senior leader Marsakola Saraswati into the Congress, by TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy on Saturday, seems to have armed the party with a strong candidate to contest the next polls from the Asifabad Assembly seat.
She is expected to be given the ticket for the reserved ST seat, as the Congress was scrambling for a candidate to contest from Asifabad. She will go up against sitting MLA Atram Sakku or ZP chairman Kova Laxmi, who is her stepsister.
Dr Ganesh Rathod of the Congress is also a ticket aspirant in Asifabad.
Saraswati had joined the TRS just before the last elections, but did not play a major role in political developments since. She aspired to become the ZP chairperson, as she was confident that Kova Laxmi would win the elections. But, after Laxmi lost the election, she was made the ZP chairperson of the Kumuram Bheem Asifabad district. This left Saraswati in political limbo.
Saraswati’s sibling Kotnak Ramesh is also expected to seek political limelight in the region in the upcoming polls. Saraswati, Laxmi and Ramesh are the children of the late Kotnak Bheem Rao, who became the first tribal minister, following the last Assembly elections.
Political battles among the three are, however, not uncommon, as Saraswati and Laxmi faced off against one another in the 2014 elections, which Laxmi won. It was not the first time, as Laxmi had previously beaten Saraswati in the 2013 gram panchayat elections to become the sarpanch of Asifabad.
Saraswati also went to the electoral battle against Laxmi’s daughter, Aruna, in the Asifabad sarpanch elections. After Aruna lost, she was elected TRS’s ZPTC chief in Sirpur.
In the 2018 elections, Saraswati lobbied for a Congress ticket for her daughter, Thodasam Leena Rao, in Khanapur, but was denied. Following the development, she joined Ramesh in supporting Laxmi.
Before inducting Saraswati, Revanth also inducted former TRS Chennur MLA Nallala Odelu and his wife Bhagyalaxmi, a ZP chairperson, into the Congress.
