Warangal: Battle lines drawn after BRS finalises candidate

Warangal : Finally, the battle lines are drawn for the Warangal Lok Sabha (SC Reserved) seat with the BRS announcing Dr M Sudheer Kumar, Hanumakonda Zilla Parishad chairman, as its candidate on Friday. It took BRS some time to finalise its candidate after it had a setback when Dr Kavya, daughter of Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari, refused to contest on the pink party ticket after the announcement.

Since then, the BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao has been scouting for a strong candidate to face the Congress’ Dr Kadiyam Kavya and the BJP’s Aroori Ramesh. It’s learnt that almost all the BRS leaders in the erstwhile Warangal district supported the candidature of Sudheer who has been with the party since its inception in 2001.

Earlier in the day, it was speculated that KCR summoned former MLA Thatikonda Rajaiah to his farmhouse in Erravalli in Medak district to give him the ticket, considering his rivalry with Kadiyam Srihari. It may be recalled here that Rajaiah quit the BRS after that party faced a debacle in the Assembly elections. But in the end, KCR finalised Dr Sudheer after getting feedback from the local leaders.

Sudheer’s family which hails from Uppal under Kamalapur mandal was settled in Bheemadevarapally. BRS sources said that Dr Sudheer’s community (Madiga) also played a major role in getting the ticket. Of late, Madiga community leaders including MRPS founder Manda Krishna Madiga have been demanding political parties to give them preference over the Mala community. Dr Sudheer was elected as the ZPTC from Elkathurthy and became ZP chairman in 2019. Polling for the Parliament election will be held in Telangana on May 13.