Adilabad: The Congress is focusing on votes from the numerically strong Nethakani community in the Peddapalli parliament constituency, where it won all seven seats in the 2023 Assembly polls.
Notably, the party high command recently laid out a red carpet welcome to sitting BRS MP, B. Venkatesh Netha, who hails from this community. With the unexpected joining of Netha into the Congress, other aspirants for the party ticket in Peddapalli might face odds.
Netha’s walkover to the Congress was a secret until the last minute. Even the local MLAs did not have any information about this. Voters number 2.5 lakh in the Peddapalli parliament constituency.
Nethakanis form a sizable population in Chennur, Bellampalli, Mancherial, Manthani, Peddapalli, and Dharmapuri assembly constituencies. This community is also called Nethkani Mahar in the erstwhile Adilabad district.
The names of defeated BRS MLA Balka Suman and Koppula Eshwar were also making the rounds in political circles as possible candidates for the Peddapalli MP seat. Both these leaders belonged to the Mala community.
Venkatesh Netha, who contested the polls on a Congress party ticket from Chennur but was defeated in 2018, subsequently joined the BRS and successfully contested the parliament polls in 2019.
Congress general secretary of erstwhile Adilabad, Durgam Bhaskar, said the party may now be focusing on the Nethakani community votes, which played a decisive role in successive elections.
It is learnt that MLA Gaddam Vivek’s son Vamsi and MLA Vinod’s daughter Vaishnavi also applied for the party ticket in the Peddapalli LS constituency. Others seeking the Congress ticket are former MP Dr. Sugunakumari, Gomasa Srinivas, Ramesh, Perka Shyam, Utla Varaprasad, and advocate Budida Mallesh.
