Telangana Assembly polls: Key constituencies to watch out for in triangular fight

HYDERABAD: Assembly elections in Telangana are set to be held on Thursday and a three-way competition is anticipated among the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Congress. Polling will be held in all 119 constituencies from 7 am to 6 pm, while the counting of votes will be taken up on December 3.

As many as 3.17 crore voters will exercise their franchise to elect legislators for a 119-member state Assembly. A total of 2,290 candidates from 109 parties including the national and regional parties are in the fray. The contestants include 221 women and one transgender. A total of 103 legislators are re-contesting this time, most of them from the ruling BRS.

Some of the constituencies in the spotlight include Gajwel, Huzurabad, Korutla, Maheshwaram, Goshamahal, Mahbubnagar, LB Nagar, Warangal East and West, Bhupalapally, Khairatabad, Amberpet, Boath, Nirmal, Adilabad, Ramagundam, Peddapalli, Kothagudem, Armoor, Nizamabad Urban, Patancheru, Serilingampally, Husnabad, Dubbak, Kalwakurthy and others. K Chandrashekar Rao, widely known as KCR, is contesting from two seats -- his original seat Gajwel and Kamareddy.

While he is facing BJP leader Etela Rajender in Gajewal, Congress state unit chief Revanth Reddy is taking him on in Kamareddy. Apart from squaring off with KCR, both Etela and Revanth Reddy are also contesting from two seats, with the BJP leader from Huzurabad and the Congress' best bet Reddy from Kodangal. Among the highly discussed seats is Korutla, from where BJP has fielded Lok Sabha member Arvind Dharmapuri against Kalvakuntla Sanjay of BRS, and Narsinga Rao Juvvadi of Congress. Moreover, from Maheshwaram, the BRS has pitted Patlolla Sabitha Indra Reddy against K Laxma Reddy (Congress) and Andela Sriramulu Yadav (BJP).

From Goshamahal, the Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded its Hindutva firebrand leader T Raja Singh, whose suspension was revoked last month following his reply to the show-cause notice issued by the party after a row was triggered by his remarks against Prophet Muhammad. In 2018, T Raja secured 45.18 per cent of the total votes polled. From Mahbubnagar, V Srinivas Goud (BRS) has been fielded against AP Mithun Kumar Reddy of BJP and Yennam Srinivas Reddy of Congress.

In LB Nagar BJP's Sama Ranga Reddy will take on Madhu Yaskhi Goud of the Congress and Devireddy Sudhir Reddy (BRS). Another key constituency would be Bhupalapally, from where the BRS has fielded Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy while the Congress and BJP have fielded Gandra Satyanarayana Rao and G Keerthi Reddy respectively.

In Ramagundam BRS' Korukanti Chander Patel will fight Congress' Makkan Singh Raj Thakur and Kandula Sandhya Rani of the BJP. Another key Assembly segment to feature in the list is Peddapalli, from where the Congress has fielded Chinthakunta Vijaya Ramana Rao against Pradeep Kumar Dugyala of the BJP and Dasari Manohar Reddy of the BRS. Congress leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, who is hopeful of a Chief Ministerial post if the grand old party comes to power in the southern state, and BRS' Kamal Raju Lingala would be slugging it out in Madhira Assembly constituency.

In previous elections, Mallu Bhatti trounced Kamal Raju by a small margin. Moreover, from the Nizamabad Urban constituency, BRS has fielded Goverdhan Bajireddy against Bhoopathi Reddy Rekulapally (Congress) and Dinesh Kumar Kulachari of the BJP.

Campaigning for the high-stakes battle in Telangana ended on Tuesday with the BJP making the election around the 'Double Engine' government while BRS and Congress went to the voters with the slogan of 'Let's make Telangana from good to great' and 'Marpu Kavali, Congress Ravali' respectively. If KCR, wins another term in office, it will be the first occasion when a Chief Minister from a Southern state will get a third straight term in office. In 2018, BRS (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) won 88 of the 119 seats and had 47.4 per cent of the vote share. The Congress came a distant second with just 19 seats.