Bhongir: TRS and Congress get ready for tough electoral battle

HYDERABAD: Known for the historical fort and temple town Yadadri, Bhongir LS is one of the most sought-after location for people and realtors due to its proximity to Hyderabad. Located just 40 kms from Hyderabad, Bhongir is one of the key constituencies for the major parties, especially Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Congress.
While the ruling party TRS is trying to retain the seat, Congress party is making efforts to regain its hold in Bhongir.A close contest likely in this LS constituencies as both the parties have a stronghold in some villages. Interestingly, apart from TRS and Congress, the Communist Parties have vast number of voters in Nakrekal, Bhongiri, Mungode and Thungathurthy assembly constituencies, that come under Bhongir Lok Sabha. Because of this, as part of its tie up with the CPM, the CPI is planning to contest from Bhongir.

TRS has announced that sitting MP Bura Narsaiah Goud would contest from Bhongir. He won the elections with a margin of 30,000 votes in the 2014 elections. The advantage for the TRS is that except for Munugode, all other six assembly constituencies are represented by TRS legislators (Nakrekal Congress MLA announced his support for the TRS recently and is set to join the party soon)
The Congress party has announced Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, a four-time MLA from Nalgonda, as its candidate. He lost from Nalgonda assembly segment in the recent assembly elections. After its creation Bhongir LS in 2008, it was first represented (2009-2014), by brother of Venkat Reddy, Komaireddy Rajgopal Reddy who was among the few Congress winners in the 2018 polls, winning from Munugode segment.
The Congress is banking on `Reddy’ community votes, which comprises about five lakh in the LS of 14 lakh voters in the constituency. The party is also trying to get the support of communist parties. But many leaders and cadre of communist parties like Pochampally, Munugode, Nakrekal have joined other parties especially the ruling party.
The other major party, PV Shyam Sunder, an NRI and Bhongir-Yadadri district president, will contest on the BJP ticket. In 2014 LS elections, party senior leader Indrasena Reddy contested but this time, he was reportedly reluctant to contest from the seat. As the party has good number of voters in Bhongir town and some pockets of Yadadri, Alair and Munugode areas, BJP leaders hope that their candidate will be able to get a seizable number of votes. In the assembly elections held in December 2018, BJP has allocated the seat to Yuva Telangana Party Jitta Balakrishna Reddy as part of the alliance.