Adilabad: The selection of candidates for the Adilabad Lok Sabha seat has become a headache for the Congress while the BJP is facing opposition from the Lambada leaders against its candidate Godam Nagesh.
Congress and BJP leadership are trying to pacify various communities to win the Adilabad MP seat. The selection of candidates has become a fight between Lambadas and Adivasis in both the BJP and Congress.
The top leaderships in the BJP and Congress are worried over the dissidence within their parties over candidate-selection.
Some Lambada leaders in the BJP are not extending support to party candidate Godam Nagesh while Lambada leaders of the Congress are opposing the allotment of party tickets to Adivasi candidates.
Lambada and Adivasis leaders aspiring for candidacy are at loggerheads in the Congress party in the past and now too.
The Congress party had given tickets to two Lambada leaders -- Ade Gajender from Boath and Shyam Naik from Asifabad --while tickets were given to Adivasi leader Vedma Bojju from Khanapur out of a total of 10 seats in the assembly constituencies in erstwhile Adilabad district. Only Vedma Bojju was elected out of three seats reserved for STs.
It is said that the Congress gave two seats for Lambadas out of three ST seats in the assembly elections with a plan to give an MP seat to Adivasis.
Actually, the Congress party wanted to give one each MP seat to Lambadas and Adivasis in the state. The party announced P Balaram Naik as its candidate for the Mahabubabad LS seat. Now, it is time to announce its candidate for the Adilabad MP seat.
A section of adivasis also demanded that the Congress party review the selection of party candidates for the Mahabubabad seat since the adivasis population is high, and there are four adivasi MLAs out of the seven seats in the Mahabubabad LS constituency.
Former MLA Rekha Naik and senior Congress leader Naresh Jadhav are lobbying for Congress ticket while former MP Ramesh Rathod, ZP chairman Rathod Janardhan, former MLA Rathod Bapu Rao and Rajesh Babu are opposing the party candidate Godam Nagesh. They are not participating in the election campaign along with Nagesh.
Adivasis leaders Atram Suguna, Sumalatha, Atram Bhaskar and Daulath Rao are also aspiring for the Adilabad MP seat.
Ramesh Rathod is also trying for a Congress party ticket despite his old relations with the TD. Sitting MP Soyam Bapu Rao and former BRS MLA Rathod Bapu Rao are also not extending their support to Godam Nagesh and not participating in the election campaign along with Nagesh.
