All eyes on four key seats

Warangal, April 13: Four out of 12 Assembly constituencies in the district are attracting the all-round attention as the stalwarts of the district politics are locked in intense competition.

The key constituencies that were attracting interest among the analysts and the commoners alike included Jangaon, Palakurthy, Dornakal and Bhupalpally.

In Jangaon, the minister for major irrigation, Mr Ponnala Lakshmaiah is taking on the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) nominee, Mr Kommuri Pratap Reddy. Interestingly, both the contestants are sitting MLAs. As the erstwhile Cherial constituency represented by Mr Pratap Reddy is merged in Jangaon, he is fighting against the Jangaon MLA, Mr Lakshmaiah.

Though the mandals of the old Cherial constituency bordering Siddipet were the bastions of TRS, the minister through his intense campaigning made deep inroads into it.

Mr Pratap Reddy’s failure to develop the backward area and his tags as the “Sunday MLA” and “Visiting MLA” were coming handy for Mr Lakshmaiah, who is fast enough to exploit the mood.

Similarly, there is a great deal of discontentment against the minister for tribal welfare, Mr D.S. Redya Naik, in his Dornakal and the neighbouring Mahabu-babad constituency from where his daughter Ms Kavita is in the fray.

As the minister had chosen his own daughter over other tribal aspirants for the newly-reserved Mahab-ubabad (ST) constituency, the dejected aspirants are now trying to “expose” the raw deal given to the tribal leadership in the district.

The Palakurthy is generating lot of interest among different sections as the MP Errabelli Dayakar Rao is taking on the former MLA and Congress leader, Dugyala Srinivasa Rao.

It is witnessing the intense competition in the district as the two leaders are the past masters of election strategy and are big spenders.

As the District Congress Committee president, Mr Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy is in the fray from Bhupalpally seat where he is fighting the TRS senior leader and ex-MLA S. Madhusudana Chary, it is also attracting attention.