LS poll date keeps Congress, BRS, BJP on tenterhooks

Telangana politics is set to heat up again as the three main political parties - Congress, BRS and BJP are bracing up for the Lok Sabha elections which are just four months away in April 2024. The parties have already started hunting for the ‘winning horses’.

Senior Congress leader K Jana Reddy has thrown his hat into the ring saying that he would contest from the Nalgonda Parliamentary constituency. The Congress party sources said it was already in the process of shortlisting its candidates and wants to be ahead of BRS and BJP in announcing the names of the candidates as speculation is rife that notification for polls would be announced towards the end of February.

TPCC senior leader CH Kiran Kumar Reddy is likely to contest from the Bhongir Lok Sabha segment. He is a close contact of MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy who was recently inducted in the cabinet led by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.

Party sources said that Congress wants to prove its political domination like in the just concluded assembly elections by winning a majority of seats.

Senior leaders, who have been asked to stay away from contesting assembly elections, will be given priority in the finalization of the candidates. Senior Congress leaders G Chinna Reddy and Mallu Ravi were trying to contest from Mahbubnagar and Nagarkurnool segments respectively. In the 2019 general election, the Congress won the three MP seats.

The ruling BRS was also weighing options to field strong candidates in view of changing political landscape in Telangana after the assembly elections. The BRS, which had won nine MP seats in the last elections, would have to put more energy to win a majority of the seats this time as the Congress and BJP were emerging as strong alternatives. Leaders said that the majority of sitting MPs will be given tickets and a few of the BRS Lok Sabha members will be replaced. A decision on finalizing the candidates would be taken soon by KCR. The BJP, which showed a good performance by winning eight Assembly seats recently, was hoping to increase its tally from the present four MPs to more than 10. The saffron party leaders have already started identifying party candidates. The party was focusing more on North Telangana where it gave a tough fight to both Congress and BRS in the assembly elections.

Sitting MP and Union Minister for Culture G Kishan Reddy will contest again from Secunderabad and three other sitting MPs – B Sanjay Kumar, D Arvind and S Bapu Rao will also fight the elections from their segments. The party was also eyeing Mahbubnagar, Peddapalli, Warangal, Mahbubabad and Medak Lok Sabha segments where the BRS is strong till recently. Speculation of bringing back Bandi Sanjay as BJP state president is also rife.