While BRS and Congress leaders performed well, the top BJP leaders and the BSP chief, an IPS-turned-politician, stumbled in this election.
Published Dec 04, 2023 | 12:23 AM ⚊ Updated Dec 04, 2023 | 12:23 AM
Telangana BRS, Congress and BJP politicians.
The 2023 Assembly elections in Telangana were a keenly contested affair, despite the BRS having comfortably won the polls in 2014 and 2018.
This election posed challenges, including for Congress chief Revanth Reddy and BJP leader Eatala Rajendra, contesting from Kamareddy and Gajwel, respectively, against Telangana Chief Minister and BRS chief K Chandrasekar Rao.
So, how did the top leaders from the parties fare in these Telangana elections? Here are the details.
A name synonymous with Telangana statehood in the political arena, KCR entered politics with the Youth Congress in the early 1980s.
In the initial stages, he contested against his political mentor, Ananthula Madan Mohan, in his hometown of Siddipet. At that time, Mohan was a senior minister and MLA from Congress. Unfortunately, Rao faced defeat in his debut contest, losing by around 800 votes.
However, he tasted success in the 1985 elections, and from that point, there was no turning back. He went on to represent Siddipet as an MLA six times and took the Telangana protest to Delhi, serving as an MP since 2004.
He won as an MP four times from Karimnagar and once for Medak in 2014. But, he had to resign from the Medak seat as he also won as an MLA from Gajwel.
In 2018, he won again from Gajwel with a margin of over 50,000 votes. In the 2023 elections, KCR contested for the third time in Gajwel, besides the first time from the Kamareddy constituency.
However, KCR successfully held the Gajwel seat against his former colleague Eatala Rajendra of BJP with a majority of over 42,300 votes.
In Kamareddy, KCR has seen his second defeat in his political career, with the BJP candidate Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy securing a majority of 6,700+ votes.
As for KTR, after completing his abroad stint, drawing inspiration from his father KCR’s political career, he entered politics by contesting from the Sircilla Assembly constituency on a TRS ticket in 2009. He won and later successfully retained the seat in a by-poll held in 2010.
In 2014, he won again from Sircilla and assumed the role of a Cabinet minister in the first Telangana government. In 2018, he contested once more from Sircilla, securing victory against Congress candidate Kondam Karuna Mahender Reddy with an impressive majority of around 80,000 votes.
For the 2023 elections, KTR retained the constituency with a margin of over 29,000 votes against Mahender Reddy of the Congress, who received just 59,500 votes.
Thanneer Harish Rao was elected from the Siddipet Assembly constituency in a 2004 by-poll, following the vacation of the seat by his uncle K Chandrashekhar Rao, who moved to Parliament.
Rao has been winning in Siddipet for six consecutive times and has not faced defeat in any election since then.
Remarkably, he is the only MLA in the state to secure a win with a high majority of over 1,20,000 votes in the 2018 elections. Over the years, he has held key portfolios, including the Ministry of Irrigation and the Finance Ministry, earning recognition as a troubleshooter for the party.
In the 2023 assembly elections, he won his seat for the seventh time, achieving victory with a majority of around 80,000 votes.
Interestingly, among the top three leaders of the BRS, with the exception of KCR facing defeat once in his debut and now at Kamareddy, none of the other leaders have faced defeat.
Chamakura Malla Reddy, a businessman-turned-politician, made his debut in the Telangana elections by contesting as MP in the Malkajgiri in 2014, where he was the sole elected MP from TDP. In June 2016, he switched parties and joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
In 2018, Malla Reddy contested from the Medchal constituency against Congress candidate Laxma Reddy, securing a victory with a majority of over 88,000 votes.
Subsequently, he assumed the role of the labour minister in the state. Malla Reddy has been a key aide of KCR and is also popular on social media for his sarcastic takes.
In the current elections, Mallareddy has successfully retained the assembly seat, securing a majority of over 33,000 votes against the Congress candidate Jangaiah Yadav.
Anumula Revanth Reddy, a former ABVP leader, started his political career in 2003 with KCR’s TRS (now the BRS). But, dissatisfied over a lack of recognition, he left the party in 2005. Subsequently, he became an independent Zilla Parishad Territorial Committee (ZPTC) member in 2006 and became an MLC in 2008.
In 2008, he joined the TDP and served as an MLA for two consecutive terms (in 2009 and 2014) from the Kodangal constituency.
In 2017, he left the TDP and joined the Congress. However, he lost the Kodangal seat in the 2018 assembly elections. Nevertheless, he won in the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Malkajgiri.
With just four years in the party, he has been elevated to the chief position within the Congress.
This time, he contested again from Kodangal where he won with a majority of more than 32,500 votes. But he slipped to the third position in Kamareddy, where he challenged KCR and secured 54,916 votes, while the BRS chief stood second with 59,911 votes.
Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, having entered politics with the Congress in the 1990s, made his debut in the elections in 2007 as an MLC from the Khammam district.
In the 2009 elections, he contested the Madira Assembly constituency and won it for three consecutive terms.
In 2019, then Congress president Rahul Gandhi appointed Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in the second Telangana Assembly.
Now, he has contested again from here and retained the seat with a majority of 35,450-plus votes against the CPI(M)’s Paladugu Bhaskar, BRS Kamal Raju Lingala, and BJP Perumarpally Vijaya Raju.
Nalamada Uttam Kumar Reddy, a politician and former Indian Air Force pilot, who served as an MLA from Kodad between 1999 and 2004 and from Huzurnagar between 2009 and 2019.
He served as the Minister of Housing, Weaker Selection Housing Programmes in N. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s ministry between 2009-2014.
He is an MP for the Nalgonda constituency, elected in 2019; later, he resigned as an MLA from Huzurnagar. He served as the president of Congress from 2015 until 2021, where he resigned after a poor performance in the 2020 GHMC polls.
The MP has now returned back to the state politics, contesting from Huzurnagar and won with a majority of 44,000+ votes against Saidi Reddy of BRS, CPI(M) Mallu Lakshmi Nagarjuna Reddy, BJP Challa Srilatha Reddy.
Dansari Anasuya, alias Seethakka, a former Maoist who is now a PHD holder comes from a tribal background and first entered politics in 2004 when she joined the TDP and lost the elections from Mulug.
She contested from it again in 2009 and won. However, she lost the constituency in 2014 to BRS candidate Azmeera Chandulal.
In 2017, Anasuya left the TDP and joined the Congress, soon becoming the general secretary of All India Mahila Congress and later state in-charge for Chhattisgarh Mahila Congress.
She took back the Mulug seat in the 2018 elections from Azmeera Chandulal.
In this election, she won again with a majority of 33,700+ votes defeating the BRS candidate Bade Naga Jyothy, whose father was a late Maoist leader.
Eatala Rajendra joined the TRS in 2003. He is recognised as a student leader with a left-wing ideology. He was elected as the MLA from Kamalapur in the 2004 elections. He served as the TRS (now BRS) floor leader in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.
In 2009, the Kamalapur constituency was merged with Huzurabad constituency. He contested the 2009 Assembly election from Huzurabad and won as the MLA.
In 2014, he won again and was appointed as the Finance Minister of Telangana in the first KCR ministry and served until 2018.
In 2018, he was re-elected as the MLA from Huzurabad constituency. But, with differences emerging with KCR, Eatela joined the BJP in 2021. Later, he contested the by-election withheld as the MLA.
Now, he has contested as an MLA from two places, one in Huzurabad against BRS Kaushik and another challenging KCR from his Gajwel.
In both the constituencies, Eatala has tasted defeat as he was restricted to the second place, with BRS Kaushik Reddy winning with a 16,800+ majority, and in Gajwel with KCR leading with a majority of over 45,000+ votes.
Bandi Sanjay Kumar entered politics in 2005 after being elected as a municipal corporator for Karimnagar’s 48th division.
He was also fielded by the BJP in 2014 and 2018 as its candidate for the assembly elections in Karimnagar. He was, however, unsuccessful in both elections and lost to the Bharat Rashtra Samiti’s Gangula Kamalakar.
He later won as an MP from Karimnagar in 2019. He held significant positions within the party structure, serving as the President of the Telangana BJP unit until recently.
But now, in the 2023 elections, he has lost consecutively for the third time to the BRS’s Gangula Kamalakar, who has secured a margin of 4,600+ votes.
Arvind Dharmapuri joined BJP as the State executive committee member, inheriting his grandfather’s ideology.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections of Nizamabad, he defeated former KCR’s daughter K. Kavitha in a contest involving a world record number of 184 candidates from that constituency.
But, this time, with the central leadership call, Aravindh contested as an MLA from Korutla Assembly constituency and lost to Kalvakuntla Sanjay with around a margin of 10,000 votes, whose father was four times MLA from the same constituency.
Raja Singh started his political career in 2009 with the TDP and was elected as a representative to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation until 2014. He joined the BJP ahead of the 2014 elections and won from Goshamahal, which is in the heart of Hyderabad.
In 2018, he was re-elected from the same constituency against the BRS candidate Prem Singh Rathore.
Singh’s name has always been in controversy, and he was even suspended by the BJP for his hate speech against the prophet. However, he was renominated again from here in the 2023 elections.
Now, he contested against Nand Kishore Vyas of BRS and INC’s Mogili Sunitha and successfully retained Goshamahal for the third time with a majority of over 21,400+ votes.
RS Praveen Kumar, the lone tall leader from the BSP who has been constantly in the news over his fight in the TSPSC paper leak in 2023.
It was in 2021, former IPS Kumar joined BSP, with a call that it was time for “Dalits and Bahujans to strive to achieve political power” in the state.
Now, cop-turned-politician Praveen Kumar has tasted a defeat in his debut contest as he lost to the BJP candidate Palvai Harish Bab with over 19000+ votes margin.
