Will bloodlines blur party lines in Vemulawada seat?

Hyderabad: Temple town Vemulawada in Rajanna Sircilla district is set to witness an interesting contest between BRS and BJP with Chennamaneni Vikas, cousin of sitting BRS MLA, likely to be fielded by the saffron party. Chennamaneni Ramesh, who is embroiled in a court case over his qualification as MLA owing to his citizenship issue, has been asked to sit out by the BRS brass and the ticket was awarded to Chalmeda Narasimha Rao. So, Ramesh has to support his own party candidate against his cousin, Vikas, who’s also son of a former Maharashtra governor. So, will bloodlines blur during the campaign?Chennamaneni Ramesh’s footprints are so strong in Vemulawada that he has won every election since the creation of the assembly segment in 2009 after the constituency’s reorganization. Barring 2009, when he was a TDP MLA, he has always contested from BRS. And chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao rewarded him with the post of advisor with cabinet rank after denying him a ticket.There was speculation that few leaders in BJP’s election management committee were upset with Vikas’ entry, especially those who sought the ticket and were close to election management committee chief Eatala Rajender. After social media was abuzz on Eatala’s absence in Vikas’s joining ceremony, the party on Thursday released a statement that Eatala had a pre-scheduled programs and there were no disputes.With Vemulawada being part of the Karimnagar LS constituency, former state party chief Bandi Sanjay was rumored to have picked this segment if he had to contest assembly polls. Also, Vemulawada was one of the few seats, where the party was runner-up in 2014 polls, when BJP’s Aadi Srinivas lost to Ramesh by a margin of 5,000 votes. However, the party slipped to third position in 2018 polls garnering only 4% votes.