TRS chief's entry puts Gajwel in the spotlight

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao has not lost an election since 1985. He won four consecutive elections from Siddipet and won both Karimnagar Lok Sabha and Siddipet Assembly seats simultaneously in 2004.

The architect of separate Telangana movement is sure that it will be a cakewalk for him in the Gajwel Assembly segment in the ensuing elections.

Gajwel Assembly segment consists of Toopran, Vargal, Mulugu, Gajwel, Jagdevpur and Kondapaka with over 2, 27,467 voters.

With the entry of KCR as he is fondly addressed, the face of Gajwel constituency has suddenly changed. The contest which the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was hoping to win has suddenly become hot with the entry of KCR as TRS has never contested from Gajwel before. TRS, which could only muster 35 seats out of 128 in local body elections in the past is hoping to hoist the party flag in Gajwel. Sitting MLA T Narsa Reddy of Congress and Vanteru Pratap Reddy of TDP are the other two prominent contenders in this segment.

“KCR’s agricultural farm is located in Errapalli on the outskirts of Jagadevpur. He is a known person there but TRS lacks cadre in Gajwel and Congress has grassroot workers who will ensure our victory,” Narsa Reddy says. However Narsa Reddy understands that he is pitted against the TRS chief and his second rung leaders have already migrated to TRS as they thought that the TRS merger with Congress was imminent. Congress cadre is in a shock as they have to fight TRS. “TRS victory here is decided. The only thing to see is the margin,” says T Harish Rao, who has been camping here from the past fortnight for his uncle KCR and leading the campaign.

On the other hand TDP candidate V Pratap Reddy hopes to give a tough fight to KCR.

“TRS always gave Gajwel seat to alliance partner, and it has no cadre base here.

TDP is strong here and the voters are vexed with Narsa Reddy’s inaction,” says Pratap Reddy, who is confident of winning Gajwel. But TDP is also facing migration of its cadre to TRS and support from its alliance partner BJP has been elusive so far.