Warangal seat unlikely to spring any surprise result

Hyderabad: All eyes are on Warangal Lok Sabha constituency as the seat has come to be known as the fortress of the ruling party. However, going by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s performance in the state elections in December last year, the outcome in the Lok Sabha elections may not any spring any surprises.

Out of the seven assembly segments under the Warangal Lok Sabha seat, the TRS emerged as victors in six with the only loss being that of former speaker S Madhusudhana Chary, who was trounced by Congress candidate Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy.

Interestingly, Konda Surekha, a TRS MLA in the previous assembly, had informed the party high command that Chary’s chances of getting elected were weak and had therefore staked claim for the seat for one of her family members. With the party leadership denying her request, Surekha ended up leaving the party. She contested in the December 2018 state elections from Parkal as a Congress candidate but lost to Challa Dharma Reddy of the TRS.

The biggest political rallies in Warangal were addressed by TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao, both before the formation of Telangana and also after the party came to power in 2014. The party’s formation day public meeting on April 27, 2017, had attracted several lakhs of people.

While the popularity of TRS is high, there have also been expectations from the public. A railway coach factory at Kazipet was pursued by the TRS with the Centre, however this has not become a reality. TRS working president K T Rama Rao has on several occasions criticised the Centre for not sanctioning the coach factory.

Sitting MP Pasunuri Dayakar has listed several of his personal accomplishments on the Lok Sabha website. He is the roopa shilpi (sculptor) of the ‘Telangana thalli’ statue and several other statues that are on display across the state. He is a graduate in fine arts from JNTU, Hyderabad. Dayakar’s attendance in the Lok Sabha is only 51 per cent as against the national average of 80 per cent and state average of 68 per cent. He participated in only one debate as against the national average of 47.1 and state average of 24.5.