NEW DELHI
The BRS is aiming for its maiden victory in the Pinapka constituency, which lies in the Bhadradri Kothagudem district, in the 119-seat Telangana Assembly elections. The Congress won the 2009 and 2018 Assembly elections, while in 2014, the YSRCP won this seat and TRS (now BRS) was runner-up that year. This time, the BRS has roped in Rega Kantha Rao, who won the 2018 elections on a Congress ticket, defeating Payam Venkateswarlu of BRS by a margin of 19,565 votes.
Both Rao and Venkateswarlu were in a direct fight during the 2009 Assembly elections, where Rao, a Congress candidate, defeated Venkateswarlu, who was contesting on a CPI ticket, by a margin of 349 votes. Venkateswarlu later joined the YSRCP and emerged victorious in the 2014 Assembly elections, while Rao distanced himself from contesting elections. Rao, in the 2018 Assembly elections, contested on a Congress ticket and won; however, it was short-lived for Congress as in 2019, Rao, along with 12 other Congress MLAs, decided to merge with the BRS, stating a lack of leadership and group politics in Congress in the state. Similar is the story with Venkateswarlu, who joined BRS before the 2018 Assembly elections, citing the welfare schemes of BRS; however, he faced defeat, and later, along with former MP Srinivas Reddy, he joined Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi. In the 2018 Assembly elections, Congress had an advantage over ground workers and the strong presence of Rao in the area who worked on irrigation projects, while CPM lacked stable state leadership.
Rao is in a good position on this seat, said a local expert, due to his availability in the constituency, and he was able to get funds for the development in the area as he was with the BRS government and worked extensively on improving the irrigation system in the constituency. However, Venkateswarlu’s presence in the group cannot be neglected. A local resident said that whoever wins from any party in this constituency, you will find the winner standing with the ruling government. Rao won on the Congress ticket but shifted to BRS, who was in power. Similarly, Venkateswarlu won on the YSRCP ticket but shifted to the ruling TRS. The constituency has 1,89,683 voters. Out of which, 21% are urban voters, while 79% are rural voters. Congress is aiming to retain ST voters, which comprise 33%, and Muslim voters, which are only 5% of total voters. In the 2014 state Assembly elections, the tribals voted for Congress as they were unhappy that the KCR government had not issued Pattadar passbooks to their Podu lands, which resulted in them being deprived of the benefits of several schemes launched for farmers, and Rao was vocal about this issue. But with Rao shifting to BRS, tribal votes may shift to Venkateswarlu this time. In the 2018 Assembly elections, BRS, despite sweeping, could only manage one seat in the Khammam district.