Telangana assembly elections 2018:Why TRS didn’t win LB Nagar seat

According to political pundits, the TRS lost 31,000 votes within a period of 34 months. They said that differences cropped up between the party candidate, Muddagouni Rammohan Goud, and a few corporators, which led to the poll debacle

LB Nagar: Though all the 11 corporators in the constituency belong to the TRS, the party could not win the L B Nagar seat in the just concluded Assembly elections. They were elected 34 months back only. Except Champapet corporator, all the others won their respective divisions with a good majority. The pink party garnered more votes than the Congress and the TDP, put together, in the GHMC elections. 

Then why this victory was not repeated in the latest polls is a hot topic in the constituency. There is a debate raging among party cadre about the negative factors that influenced voters on the polling day. According to political pundits, the TRS lost 31,000 votes within a period of 34 months. They said that differences cropped between the party candidate Muddagouni Rammohan Goud and the corporators, which led to the poll debacle. 

There are allegations that the corporators misappropriated the public funds. According the party’s reliable sources, present Hayathnagar corporator Tirumal Reddy got the corporator ticket with the influence of one of the minister. Since his victory in the division, differences cropped up between Tirumal Reddy and Rammohan Goud who is also working as party constituency in-charge.  The TRS sources said that the differences led to protocol issues between the two and it led to unrepaired damage to the party. 

When it comes to Champapet, its corporator Sama Ramana Reddy also followed Tirumal Reddy’s path in getting ticket and won the division. Thus differences cropped between him and Muddagouni. The party sources said that there were some instances where the party high-command intervened to resolve the disputes between them such as formation of committees in the divisions. 

They said that Hastinapuram corporator Ramavath Padma Naik, who got the ticket recommended by one of the MLAs, also had dispute with Muddagouni, but later they shed differences and jointly participated in various development programmes in the division. 

The party sources said that Vanasthalipuram corporator Rajasekhar Reddy has also been maintaining ‘touch-me-not’ relation with the party in-charge. They said that though there is a dispute with Muddagouni, Lingojiguda corporator Mudraboina Srinivasa Rao conducted poll campaign in favour of his candidature. Congress MLA-elect Devireddy Sudheer Reddy’s main follower and present Gaddiannaram corporator Bhavani Praveen also never sailed with Rammohan Goud. 

Corporators Jinnaram Vittal Reddy and Mansoorabad Vittal Reddy campaigned for the party nominee. Other corporators Sagar Reddy and Cheruku Sangeetha Prashanth Goud, who maintained distance with Rammohan Goud before the elections were campaigned in favour after the party high-command swing into action and set right the things. 

Before announcement of Muddagouni’s candidature, as many as seven corporators from the constituency complained against him and requested Minister KT Rama Rao not to consider his name for LB Nagar, the party sources said. The minister called both groups and convinced them to work in coordination to ensure party victory. But the pink party was defeated in the recent elections. 

The same party which garnered 1,27,677 votes in GHMC elections from the victory of the candidates now compromised with 96,132 votes in the Assembly elections. The political pundits opined that such differences among TRS leaders paved way for Devireddy Sudheer Reddy’s poll victory.

The party sources said that the high-command was busy brain-storming on the reasons for the poll defeat in LB Nagar, despite there being 11 corporators in the constituency. 

By Pasunuru Venkatesh