Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha Election: BJP Heavyweight Complicates Revanth Reddy’s Prestige Battle in BRS Bastion – News18

Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha constituency in Telangana falls under the general category and includes part of Mahbubnagar district. It comprises seven assembly segments: Kodangal, Narayanpet, Mahbubnagar, Jadcherla, Devarkadra, Makthal, and Shadnagar.

Manne Srinivas Reddy of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi is the incumbent MP here and has got the poll ticket again. Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy of the Congress and DK Aruna from the Bharatiya Janata Party are the other top contenders.

Polling will be held in the constituency on May 13 in the fourth phase of the ongoing general elections.

Political dynamics

Congress’s prestige battle: Mahbubnagar is all set to witness a repeat of the 2019 triangular contest, with all the same candidates — Manne Srinivas Reddy of the BRS, Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy of the Congress, and DK Aruna of the BJP.

The sands are shifting in the political landscape of Telangana since the ouster of the K Chandrashekar Rao-led BRS government in 2023. The Congress’s resounding victory and the soaring phenomenon of chief minister A Revanth Reddy have placed the party in a promising situation with a solid chance of wresting Mahbubnagar, a BRS bastion since 2009. However, the BJP is no underdog in this contest much to the discomfiture of the Congress.

In the 2023 assembly elections, the Congress secured all seven assembly seats in the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha constituency, with a winning margin of over 1 lakh votes and a vote share of 46.4% against the BRS’s 38.7%. This was a solid jump from the Congress’s 2018 performance when it bagged only 20.8% of the votes while the BRS got 50%.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had slipped to third place with about 20% of the votes with the BRS candidate winning the seat with a vote share of 41.78%.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s stock is consistently rising with each election. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the party rose to second place, scoring a vote share of almost 34%, up from 27.7% in 2014.

The Congress’s grand victory in the state last year has boosted its chances in the Lok Sabha elections, with CM Revanth Reddy making it a personal battle for him, especially in the constituency of Mahbubnagar of which he is a native.

The Congress party is targeting a victory in 14 out of 17 seats in the state, and Mahbubnagar is one of its most crucial battlegrounds. A Revanth Reddy started his political career in the Mahbubnagar district where he won his first zilla parishad territorial constituency. To prove his mettle and solidify his hold over the party, the leader is leveraging his influence in the region to garner votes based on his reputation rather than solely on the candidate’s name, elevating the Congress’s game from its 2019 show.

The Congress has stuck with Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy as its candidate in 2024. Reddy was in the fray in 2019 also, when he lost the election, slipping to third place below the BRS and BJP, with a vote share under 20%. Reddy is a former MLA, who has been associated with the NSUI and was the state President of the Andhra Pradesh Youth Congress before being elected in 2014 as an MLA from the Kalwakurthy seat.

Being a youth leader native to Mahbubnagar, Reddy is a well-known face in the constituency. His stock has got a significant boost with the recent rise of the Congress, and a hearty endorsement from the chief minister himself.

Minority voters, drawn towards the Congress leadership in the state, may shift from their former favourite KCR to Revanth Reddy. Moreover, with seven MLAs in the constituency, the leader of the Congress’s campaign is a powerful one, putting the BRS on the back foot.

However, the BJP is unfazed, which has made the Congress jittery. The Congress party has realised the threat of a tacit understanding between the BJP and BRS, with Revanth Reddy expressing this suspicion at a public meeting in Narayanpet. He also attacked DK Aruna, claiming that she had failed to push the development of the Palamuru Irrigation Project despite joining the BJP.

BJP’s heavyweight candidate: The BJP is presenting a formidable challenge in the Mahbubnagar seat with both Revanth Reddy and KCR targeting its candidate DK Aruna. Fielding Aruna, a well-known political figure in Telangana, the BJP aims to capitalise on her strong presence in the Mahbubnagar district. She was first elected to the assembly in 2004 on a Samajwadi Party ticket from Gadwal and later shifted to the Congress continuing for two more terms in 2009 and 2014. She served as a minister in the Andhra Pradesh cabinet under the reign of YS Rajasekhara Reddy. Ultimately in 2019, she made a pivotal decision — to join the BJP and contest in the Lok Sabha election.

Aruna comes from one of the most powerful political families in south Telangana, with links in both the Congress and the BRS and considerable sway in the entire Mahbubnagar district. Her father, Ch Narsireddy, was an MLA, as was her brother Rammohan Reddy who lost on a BRS ticket in Makthal in 2023. Her nephew, BRS leader BK Reddy, is an MLA from the Gadwal seat. Moreover, DK Samarasimha Reddy, the elder brother of her husband, held a prominent position within the Congress during the 1980s and 1990s, earning a reputation for his firm control over the district.

With an impressive political background and family ties to the region, Aruna presents herself as a formidable candidate, vying for victory against the Congress. She has even positioned herself as a potential cabinet minister at the Centre if elected and is determined to secure a win for the BJP, leveraging both her personal reputation and the party’s platform to appeal to voters in Mahbubnagar district.

DK Aruna is an aggressive leader with formidable political experience, setting her sights firmly on securing the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha seat. In 2019, with her in the fray, the BJP rose to second place with a vote share of almost 34%. This time, the party seeks to expand its share in a head-to-head contest with the Congress.

Moreover, Aruna is backed by the Narendra Modi factor, as the Prime Minister’s popularity has risen in the area owing to central development and welfare schemes. Hindutva is a key factor as well, with the Ayodhya Ram Mandir celebrations mobilising support for the BJP. Backed by Hindu voters, especially among the forward castes including Brahmins, the BJP has a strong undercurrent flowing in its favour in Mahbubnagar, at a time when minority votes are at risk of splitting between the other two parties.

BRS bastion slipping away: Mahbubnagar, a BRS bastion, is slipping out of its hands in real-time. Once held by K Chandrashekar Rao in 2009, the seat is now under Manne Srinivas Reddy since 2019, who is also the candidate in 2024 for a second term. In 2019, he won the election with over 77,000 votes against his BJP rival DK Aruna. However, things do not look easy for the BRS this time with the grand comeback of the Congress.

According to local reports, the BRS stands eviscerated in the state ever since its devastating loss in the assembly elections. The party had a vote share of 38.7%, down from 50% in 2018. It could not secure even a single seat in the Mahbubnagar constituency.

The regional party now fears that it is at risk of being pushed to the sidelines in a BJP vs Congress battle of national behemoths. KCR has asserted that the core fight is with the BJP, ignoring the elephant in the room, which is the sweeping tide of the Congress. He also asserts that his party, after facing a loss in state elections, has bounced back owing to alleged anger against the Revanth Reddy government in the last few months. In a speech in the district pointed towards recent power outages, he said that the Congress cannot even provide electricity supply to the people.

The seat has become a matter of prestige for former chief minister KCR, who still commands considerable sway in the state. He is leveraging his political stature among the poor and minority voters in Mahbubnagar to hold on to this bastion.

Voter demographics (2011 Census)

• Total voters (2019): 15,06,102
• Urban: 19.6%
• Rural: 80.4%
• SC: 15.3%
• ST: 8.6%
• Hindu: ~90%
• Muslim: 9.4%
• Christian: 0.53%

Key issues

Divitipally locality: People below the poverty line have long dreamt of owning a house. Their dreams were fulfilled by the state government scheme under K Chandrashekar Rao as people received 2 BHKs at KCR Nagar at Divitipally. However, the houses had extensive problems, which people had to pay to get repaired out of their own pockets. They had to shell out up to Rs 10 lakh by taking loans from banks, moneylenders, etc, to fix the houses. Moreover, essential amenities are missing from the locality. Roads, security measures, educational institutions, a local vegetable market, streetlights, and reliable public transport connectivity are absent. The residents and beneficiaries of the government scheme have demanded better police protection, roads, and connectivity but no action has been taken for development.

Palamuru irrigation project: This project is crucial for the drought-stricken areas of the Mahbubnagar district, including the Kodangal, Narayanpet, and Makthal assembly constituencies. But it has been caught in a war of words between the Congress and BJP, with Revanth Reddy claiming that DK Aruna had failed to secure central funds for the project despite having joined the BJP. She though has not been in power for the last five years. Aruna addressed the attack as “frustration”, stating that the misleading and false campaign unleashed by Revanth Reddy would backfire on him.

Unemployment and emigration: Despite having good infrastructure capabilities to support higher education, the region has failed to support employment for the educated youth. At present, there exists one IT park in Mahbubnagar, which is also suffering from a lack of major companies. As a result, the employment opportunities at present are severely constrained. People, especially the youth, have had to move out of their hometowns to nearby urban centres such as Hyderabad, Chennai, or even Bengaluru in search of better opportunities.

Freebies: Freebies have generated a strong critical response from the middle and lower middle classes. People are surprised and shocked by the number of freebies announced by the BRS and Congress and have recognised this as vote bank politics rather than social welfare. People have questioned how the government is going to pay for all the freebies it has announced, whether the state has money, and if it does, then why it is not investing it to provide civic infrastructural development such as roads, schools, hospitals, and colleges.

Distribution of schemes: The BRS had implemented a huge number of welfare and other schemes such as the Aasara pension, Rythu Bandhu, Dalit Bandhu, Podu Patta, Dharani Portal, Mission Bhagiratha, 2BHK housing scheme, and Rythu Runa Mafi. While they are all aimed to provide economic welfare and houses, etc, to the poor masses, their implementation has been inconsistent and erratic as BRS workers have been preferred over people with irregular or no sources of income. They have been unable to receive pensions, which has made the whole exercise of the welfare scheme a failure in several pockets of Mahbubnagar.

Critical gagging: People who have not been able to benefit from the schemes of the state government are scared to voice their opinions against the local MLAs. They fear either being thrashed by local goons or getting thrown into jail under false cases. People feel that there is a hidden gag order that has been put on them from being critical of the local administration or MLA. Some have termed it as the death of democracy and their rights.

Illegal sand mining: Despite facing multiple arrests by the police and penalties imposed by revenue officials, the sand mafia in Koilkonda Mandal of Mahbubnagar district continues to escalate its illegal mining activities. Similarly, rampant illegal sand mining is also underway in Madanapur Mandal of the Devarkadra constituency.

Archaeological neglect: A 900-year-old group of temples belonging to the Chalukyan dynasty have been lying in neglect here. There are four in Polepalli and a triple shrine on the outskirts that await maintenance and care. These have the potential to become a centre and transform Mahbubnagar’s economic development by turning the state into a hub of spiritual tourism. Locals have been made aware of their importance and they do believe that providing support and maintenance to the temple buildings will help transform the local economy of Polepalli, and Mahbubnagar as a whole, where industries and government projects have failed to create employment.

Infrastructure development

Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation: The irrigation system is one of the most important to provide irrigation and drinking water to the drought-hit areas of Mahbubnagar. It is being built on the Krishna river at a cost of Rs 35,000 crore.

IT tower: The IT tower was inaugurated in 2023. It is the first of its kind in Mahbubnagar and currently hosts nine IT firms. It was built at a cost of Rs 40 crore.

KCR Urban Eco-Park: The state government developed this park on 2,087 acres, making it the largest eco-park in India. It was inaugurated in 2020. Plans have been put in place to construct an aviary at the eco-park, which will house more than 800 exotic species of birds.

Hyderabad (Kacheguda)-Raichur-Hyderabad (Kacheguda) train service: Inaugurated in 2023, the line aims to connect backward areas in Mahbubnagar with rail connectivity for the first time. This will ensure ease of travel for students, daily commuters, labourers, and the local handloom industry in the region.

Amrit Bharat station: Mahbubnagar has been selected as one of the stations in the state which will be completely renovated to match the logistical capacity and provide passenger amenities on par with airports. The city’s station is being developed at a cost of Rs 39.9 crore.

Railway infrastructure: Doubling railway lines, with projects like the Secunderabad-Mahbubnagar-Dhone section have been completed, aimed at increasing capacity and reducing travel times. Additionally, the electrification of lines has been prioritised to improve speed and sustainability. Safety remains paramount, with the construction of road over bridges and limited-height subways to eliminate level crossings and ensure smooth traffic flow. These developments, coupled with green initiatives like solar power utilisation and LED lighting at stations, are transforming Mahbubnagar’s railway network.

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