Brings in 10 new faces as MPs.
Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister and TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) supremo K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) has given shock to seniors, including the party leader in Lok Sabha, by denying them tickets two days before the closure of filing of nominations. He tightened his grip on the party by giving importance to loyalty and discipline and showing the doors to the established leaders. The Chief Minister brought in 10 new faces as MPs.
KCR announced his list of candidates for all the 17 Lok Sabha seats around 8 pm on Thursday, and this had kept many of his seniors on tenterhooks till the last minute. TRS leader in Lok Sabha A.P. Jithender Reddy, who currently represents Mahabubnagar seat, was shown the door and replaced with a pharmaceuticals businessman Manne Srinivas Reddy. Jithender Reddy expected a ticket till the last minute and lobbied hard by declaring that he was “fully loyal to the leadership of KCR” and that he “would abide by any decision of the leader”. Reddy hoped that he would be given ticket as he had worked relentlessly hard for the party. However, Jithender Reddy was denied a ticket at the last minute.
Jithender Reddy, also an infrastructure businessman, is a two-term MP, the first term as BJP member during the Vajpayee government. He joined TRS subsequently and was re-elected to Parliament in 2014. His bubbly style of functioning and his close rapport with several bigwigs in the current BJP government became an issue with TRS.
Reddy had differences with some TRS candidates in his district who contested the 7 December Assembly polls. One of them—V. Srinivs Goud—who later became minister, has been objecting to the re-nomination of Jithender Reddy as MP. KCR took into account the views of local MLAs and finally decided against giving ticket to Jithender Reddy.
Jithender Reddy was approached by both Congress and BJP leaders since Thursday for fielding him on their tickets, but he issued a statement saying that he would not quit TRS and would wait for the decision of KCR on his political future. The abrupt rejection of ticket to Jithender Reddy is seen as KCRs’ firm stand on curbing disloyalty and indiscipline in the party. KCR also denied tickets to three more sitting MPs—Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy from Khammam, Dr Sitaram Naik from Mahabubabad (ST) and Gutta Sukhender Reddy from Nalgonda. However, only Naik was elected on TRS ticket in 2014, while Ponguleti joined the party from YSR Congress and Sukhender from Congress. Ponguleti, another infrastructure contractor, had to pay the price for the defeat of TRS in the recent Assembly elections in Khammam. Many of the lost candidates, including Roads Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao, blamed Ponguleti for their defeat. Finally, KCR gave ticket to former MP Nama Nageswara Rao who quit TDP and joined TRS only three hours before allotment of the ticket. Dr Naik, a former university professor, was punished for working against the party MLAs in the Assembly elections as four out of the seven segments were lost to the Congress. He was replaced with Malothu Kavitha, former MLA and daughter of TRS MLA D.S. Reddya Naik. She, along with K. Kavitha, daughter of KCR, are the two women MP candidates from TRS. KCR brought in a few face—V. Narasimha Reddy—as TRS candidate for Nalgonda MP seat, and Sukhender was announced as an MLC candidate. Another shock is denial of ticket to former MP G. Vivek who expected Peddapalli (SC) LS seat for the last five years. He was a Congress MP from the seat during 2009-14 and joined TRS after his defeat five years ago. Vivek, who owns the Visakha Group of industries, was made an adviser to the state government.