Lok Sabha elections: Women candidates giving men a run for their money

Hyderabad: In at least three

Lok Sabha

constituencies in the state, male candidates have a real uphill task. Formidable

women

candidates in Nizamabad, Khammam and Mahbubnagar do tilt the electoral scale in their favour. In three other constituencies—Nagarkurnool, Mahabubabad and Nalgonda—women candidates have a chance to mar the winning prospects of other candidates.

Though over 20 women filed nominations across various constituencies in Telangana, three will play a prominent part in the outcome, the first being K Kavitha, sitting MP from Nizamabad and daughter of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Kavitha is the definite front-runner in the constituency. Kavitha is the first woman to have won the Nizamabad seat since 1952. She won against then sitting MP Madhu Yashki Goud of Congress in 2014 by a margin of over 1.67 lakh votes. Since then, she has only grown in strength and has expanded the party base to the grassroots.

Both Madhu Yashki Goud of the Congress and D Arvind of the BJP have been expressing confidence that they would trounce Kavitha. Kavitha, on the other hand, is so confident of her victory that in her campaigns she is speaking of other constituencies, calling upon people to elect TRS candidates from them.

Woman power is not new to the Khammam constituency. Voters of this constituency had elected T Lakshmi Kantamma for three terms consecutively in 1962, 1967 and 1971. The electorate again voted in favour of Renuka Chowdhury consecutively for two terms in 1999 and 2004. The Congress has fielded former minister Renuka Chowdhury from Khammam again.

Nama Nageswara Rao

(then TDP) who had defeated her in 2009, is also in the fray, on TRS ticket. The TRS denied ticket to its sitting MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy who had won on YSRCP ticket in 2014 and later joined TRS. Renuka Chowdhury has vowed to bring back the lost glory of Congress in Khammam.

Yet another formidable woman candidate is BJP’s DK Aruna in Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha constituency. She would be the first woman to win from Mahbubnagar seat since 1952 if she emerges victorious. Aruna served as a minister in undivided AP. She is a force to reckon with in this constituency and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public meeting in this constituency has only bolstered her electoral prospects.

Maloth Kavitha of TRS from Mahbubabad, Bangaru Shruthi of BJP from Nagarkurnool and Mallu Laxmi of CPM from Nalgonda too, are being considered as dark horses in their constituencies.