Lobbying on for Adilabad MP ticket through Karnataka and Maharashtra
Adilabad/Khammam: Ticket aspirants from the Congress and BJP are lobbying for MP tickets through some top political leaders in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Many of these aspirants have met top leaders of TPCC and pleaded for inclusion of their names in the shortlist the state party sends to the AICC.
Both Adivasis and Lambadas are mounting pressure on the TPCC and AICC to allocate Adilabad and Mahabubabad seats, reserved for STs, to their community. Some of the ticket aspirants went to Delhi and met the top leadership there in this connection.
Adivasis of erstwhile Adilabad are urging the Congress high command to allocate a seat for Adivasis since their population is around 2.5 lakhs. The Lambada's population is 1.5 lakh among the ST population in the same region.
Adivasi MLAs, Kova Laxmi of BRS, Vedma Bojju of the Congress and Anil Jadhav of BRS (Lambada) were elected from the three assembly constituencies reserved for STs in the Adilabad parliament constituency.
Meanwhile, reports are that former MLA Rekha Naik, who joined the Congress before the assembly elections, is lobbying for the party ticket to contest the Adilabad Lok Sabha seat through her political sources in Karnataka. Rekha Naik’s husband Shyam Naik of the Congress had contested from Asifabad and was defeated at the hands of Kova Laxmi of the BRS.
Alongside, Adivasi leaders urged the party high command to allocate the Adilabad MP seat for Adivasis, among the two MP seats reserved for tribals in Telangana.
While Lambada leaders sought the Adilabad seat for Lambadas, news is that one each of the Adilabad and Mahabubabad MP seats would be allocated to Lambadas and Adivasis.
Adivasi leaders of erstwhile Khammam and Warangal are urging the party high command to allocate the Mahabubabad seat for Adivasis since four Adivasi MLAs were elected out of the seven MLA seats in the Mahabubabad Parliament constituency.
Former Khammam ZP chairman and senior Congress leader Chanda Lingaiah Dora, who sought the party ticket for the Mahabubabad MP seat, said the Congress high command must do justice to the Adivasis this time, unlike in the past.
He said four Adivasi MLAs won the elections, out of the region’s seven seats, and Adivasis population is high in Mahabubabad parliament constituency.
Many Congress leaders from the Lambada community are trying for the party ticket. Reports are that minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy is indirectly extending his support to a Lambada woman, who is seeking the party ticket to contest the Mahabubabad MP seat.
On the other hand, sitting BJP MP Soyam Bapu Rao, former MPs Ramesh Rathod of BJP and Godam Nagesh of BRS and Dr Naitham Sumalatha and Rajesh Babu who recently joined the BJP from BRS and BJP senior leader and Thudumdebba Asifabad district president Kotnak Vijay who contested as an independent candidate for MLA from Asifabad and got 16,469 votes in the recent assembly elections were lobbying for party ticket.
