Malkajgiri constituency going to be a tough contest in MP elections

Malkajgiri, the country’s largest parliamentary constituency, has bucked the trend in the last general election of 2014 by electing Telugu Desam’s Malla Reddy when the wave in Telangana was for the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

He turned out to be the lone TDP MP elected from TS but he later defected to TRS.

Mr. Malla Reddy won by 28,166 votes getting 5,23,356 votes in alliance with the BJP while the TRS got 4,95,190, Congress 2,33,530, YSRCP 1,15,221 and Lok Satta’s Jayaprakash Narayan 1,58,248. Now, a Cabinet Minister in TRS government having won from Medchal Assembly segment in December last, he managed to get his son-in-law M. Rajasekhar Reddy contest as the TRS candidate after the ruling party considered several other names.

They had to think twice because the Congress has fielded its TS working president Revanth Reddy, bete-noir of Chief Minister K. Chandraekhar Rao.

Although he suffered a defeat in his pocket borough of Kodangal Assembly segment, his forceful personality, gift of gab to match the TRS and ability to enthuse the cadre makes him a strong proponent even though the ruling party is firmly in control of the seven Assembly constituencies.

In fact, Congress’ Sudheer Reddy won in L.B. Nagar standing up to the ‘Pink Wave’ which swept TS in the Assembly elections but quickly jumped ship on to TRS bandwagon.

Other Assembly constituencies coming under Malkajgiri are: Secunderabad Cantonment, Malkajgiri, Kukatpally, Qutbullapur and Medchal.

TDP is not contesting the parliamentary polls in TS after eating a humble pie in the Assembly polls despite having won the seat in the last election in an alliance with the BJP.

Mr. Revanth Reddy, once its legislative party leader, has already sought the party support and also from Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) of Prof. Kodandaram with the hope that people will vote with a national perspective in mind.

TRS candidate Mr. Rajasekhar Reddy is a newbie and is banking on KCR and KTR to woo the voters. BJP has fielded its city president N. Ramchander Rao and he will be pressing in top party leaders from Delhi including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, scheduled to address a public meeting at Parade Grounds, Ram Madhav and others to campaign for him.

Incidentally, Mr. Rao too had lost in the Assembly polls from Malkajgiri. Pawan Kalyan too has fielded Mahesh Reddy as Jana Sena Party candidate. It will be interesting to watch how the permutations and combinations will work with candidates switching parties and alliances in this constituency of 23,81, 543 voters - 1239801 males and 11,41,485 females.

The area is called a ‘mini-India’ as it has people from across the country settled down here. Apart from civic amenities, restriction on roads through the Secunderabad Cantonment, delay in MMTS phase-Two and the road under bridge works are some of the issues on locals mind.