HYDERABAD: All eyes are on Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency from where chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter Kavitha Kalvakuntla is seeking a re-election. As campaign came to a close on Tuesday, Kavitha upped the ante saying Congress is extending tacit support to BJP candidate Arvind Dharmapuri, son of TRS Rajya Sabha member and former Congress leader D Srinivas, having realised that it’s not even in the race. She, however, exuded confidence of winning the election comfortably.
Arvind, on the other hand, said this election was all about national issues and that TRS was not a factor. “In fact, I can vouch for a fact that the
Telangana government will be in trouble after the Lok Sabha polls,” Arvind warned. When it became clear that Arvind would be contesting against her on a BJP ticket, Kavitha sought the party leadership to take action against Srinivas for ‘anti-party’ activities. KCR, however, chose not to act but distanced himself from Srinivas.
Arvind alleged that KCR could not be trusted to deliver on his promises and said that his promise of 12% reservation for minorities remained hollow. He alleged that TRS leaders and cadres were threatening people that their pensions would be stopped if they do not vote for the party candidate.
Surprisingly, Congress candidate Madhu Yaskhi Goud alleged that TRS is the ‘B’ team of BJP and even put out photos of KCR-Modi meetings on his social media account. He said that since a separate Telangana had become a reality due to Congress, it would develop only if his party is voted to power.
In all, there are 185 candidates, a majority of them turmeric and jowar farmers, in the fray in Nizamabad.
Sushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyde...
Read MoreSushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyderabad. He began his journalism career at the age of 20 in 1988. He is a gold medalist in journalism from the Department of Communication and Journalism, Arts College, Osmania University, Hyderabad from where he did his post-graduation from. He has been with The Times of India’s Hyderabad edition since its launch in 2000. He has also done an introductory course in film studies from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and also from the Central University of Kerala equipping himself with the knowledge of filmmaking for film criticism. He has authored four books. In his career spanning 34 years, he has worked for five newspapers and has also done television reporting. He was also a web journalist during internet’s infancy in the mid 1990s in India. He covers defence, politics, diaspora, innovation, administration, the film industry, Hyderabad city and Telangana state, and human interest stories. He is also a podcaster, blogger, does video reporting and makes documentaries.
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