After announcing Abraham as the Alampur candidate in August, BRS supremo KCR finally gave the ticket to his rival Vijayudu.
Published Nov 24, 2023 | 7:02 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 24, 2023 | 9:08 PM
Alampur BRS MLA VM Abraham joining the Congress in the presence of party chief Revanth Reddy.
A week ahead of polling, the BRS suffered a set back with its sitting MLA from Alampur, VM Abraham, joining the Congress. The BRS leader joined the party in the presence of state unit president A Revanth Reddy on Friday, 24 November.
Though Telangana Chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao had announced the Alampur ticket to Abrahim when he released the party candidates for 115 seats in August, he finally allotted the ticket to one Vijayudu, a protege of BRS MLC Challa Venkarami Reddy.
Venkatarami Reddy had opposed the allotment of the ticket to Abraham.
Not to be outdone, Abraham, too, tried his best to get the B-form KCR. He met BRS working president KT Rama Rao and Finance Minister T Harish Rao a couple of times and pleaded with them to consider him for the seat, but his supplications did not cut ay ice with them.
After he lost the race to Vijayudu, Abrahm had burst out in anger and questioned the interference of Challa Venkatarami Reddy in the allotment of the ticket for Alampur.
He had said that though the chief minister had announced the ticket to him, Venkatarami Reddy had prevailed on the BRS supremo and deprived him of the opportunity of contesting the election as a BRS nominee.
He also questioned the Telangana credentials of Venkatrami Reddy and Vijayudu and demanded to know whether either of them took part in the movement for a separate state.
When the allotment of tickets was being delayed, both Abraham and Vijayudu began campaigning, each hoping that the party would prefer him in the eleventh hour, leading to confusion among the people on who the BRS candidate was.
Meanwhile, former MP Manda Jagannadham also began bringing pressure on the party to allot the ticket to his son Srinath.
But on 7 November, three days before the closure of nominations, KTR handed over the B form to Vijayudu, dashing the hopes of Abraham that he would be retained.
Abraham, who found a new home in the Congress, might queer the pitch for Vijayudu.
Abraham won with an impressive majority in 2018 from the Alampur constituency, reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SCs).
However, local landlord Challa Venkatarami Reddy, who has sway over voters, wanted his protege Vijayudu to be the MLA so that he would remain subservient to him.
Venkatarami Reddy — grandson of former President Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy — is understood to have brought in Vijayudu to stymie the growth of Abraham as he had already been an MLA twice.
Another reason he wanted Abraham out was that the former was trying to promote his son. Abraham is a doctor by profession and Reddy did not want an educated man to get entrenched in the constituency.
As Venakarami Reddy, currently an MLC, has a tight grip on voters in villages in the constituency, the party leadership also sailed with him, though it initially wanted Abraham to be the candidate.
The party did not want to take the risk of offending Venakatami Reddy, a source in Mahabubnagar said.
