Owners vie for tickets

Hyderabad

March 21: Owners of several educational institutions in the state are vying with each other to secure tickets from political parties to contest in the ensuing elections.
Though it’s a common phenomenon during every election, this time the competition is intense as the state had witnessed tremendous expansion of higher education during the past five years with large number of engineering, MBA and other colleges in the country.
Several prominent educational groups in the state operate numerous professional colleges such as TRR, Maheshwara, Nova and Aditya Group of Institutions. Nearly 50 such candidates are in the race for tickets.
Most of the owners are aspiring for the Congress and TD tickets. However, there is demand for Praja Rajyam tickets as they think it is easy to secure PR tickets.
The owner of Aditya Group and former MLC, Mr Shesha Reddy, is vying for the Congress ticket in Pitapuram in East Godavari district.
“Thousands of students who are studying in colleges offer fee discounts for the poor. Being in the education field, we are close to students and parents. Thus, we hope the parties will recognise our services and offer seats,” said Mr A. Maheshwar Reddy, owner of Maheshwara group and a TD aspirant.