Congress Loses Warangal LS Even Before Election

With its earlier candidate, ex-MP Sircilla Rajaiah getting embroiled in the controversy of the mysterious death of his daughter-in-law and three grandsons, the Congress party lost its credibility in the Warangal Lok Sabha by-election scheduled for November 21.Rajaiah was replaced by Sarve Satyanarayana, ex-MP from Malkajgiri who also worked as a central minister.

It was a tough time for almost all the parties including the ruling TRS finding a suitable candidate for the by-poll which was necessitated by the resignation of the elected MP Kadiyam Srihar who opted to serve the state as a deputy chief minister. He was later nominated as an MLC to continue in the state cabinet. He defeated the incumbent S. Rajaiah with a huge margin of 3.95 lakh votes in the 2014 general elections. The BJP-TDP joint candidate R. Parameshwar could not make any impact in the election.

Although parties have good number of senior leaders in the district, it became difficult to pick candidates for the Lok Sabha seat as it is reserved for SCs. It became clear now that no party has groomed leaders from SCs all these years. The Congress had to send Sarve Satyanarayana from Hyderabad to contest Warangal Lok Sabha seat in the aftermath of the tragic incident.

The voters of Warangal used to elect leaders from other places for decades. Kamaluddin Ahmed who was from Delhi was elected as Hanamkonda MP for three terms on Congress ticket. Former prime minister late PV Narasimha Rao from Karimnagar was also elected twice from Hanamkonda.

However, the trend came to an end in the recent elections wherein Chada Suresh Reddy of TDP, Vinod Kumar of TRS and S. Rajaiah of Congress were preferred by the Hanamkonda voters and Dharavath Ravinder Naik of TRS, Errabelli Dayakararao of TDP, Siricilla Rajaiah of Congress and Kadiyam Srihari in Warangal Lok Sabha segment.

Sarve Satyanarayana who miserably lost in the general elections from Malkajgiri Lok Sabha segment is known for his uncivilized public behavior; he abused government officials in full public view when he was a central minister and he chided a woman for asking for better civic amenities in her locality at an election meeting. Except for his loyalty to the party president Sonia Gandhi, Sarve doesn't have any leadership qualities to impress the voters of Warangal. Congress may not be able to encash whatever little anti-incumbency conditions prevailed as the party suffered a huge setback with the Rajaiah incident. Besides, people won't be able to relate to Sarve as he is not a familiar face in the district.

The contest is going to be only nominal from Congress. The BJP candidate supported by its ally TDP, Devaiah is also not a seasoned politician to make any impact on the prospects of the TRS candidate Pasunuri Dayakar. Though he is new in electoral politics, Dayakar enjoys an all-out support from the party chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao who is personally overseeing the by-poll campaign arrangements and providing all funding necessary for the election. A fine arts graduate from JNTU, Dayakar designed Telangana Talli statue and is well-known to people as he has been working in TRS since its inception.