The Congress is hoping to improve its tally in the Lok Sabha polls in the party-ruled Telangana, which would also cement Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s rising stature in the party.
All eyes would be especially on Mahbubnagar district comprising Mahbubnagar and Nagarkurnool constituencies, given that it is the home turf of Revanth, who is also the Telangana Congress president.
As the Congress rallies round the CM, terming the parliamentary elections a referendum on his governance over the past five months, it is faced with the challenge of wresting the two seats from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), even as the BJP has made inroads in the region. The Congress and the BRS have won Nagarkurnool, one of the three SC-reserved seats in Telangana, once each in 2014 and 2019, respectively, in the two rounds of elections since the state’s formation.
Wanaparthy town. (Photo: Rahul V Pisharody)
With Nagarkurnool’s incumbent BRS MP, Pothuganti Ramulu, joining the BJP in February, the latter has nominated his son Pothuganti Bharat Kumar (36) from here in the current polls.
The Congress has nominated veteran leader Mallu Ravi from Nagarkurnool, who had won the seat in 1991 and 1998. The BRS has fielded former IPS officer R S Praveen Kumar, who quit the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as its state chief in March 2024 to join the party.
Spearheading the Congress campaign, Revanth Reddy is counting on the ‘son of the soil’ sentiment, and has appealed to voters to help the party win these two seats by over a lakh votes. Alleging that the BJP and the BRS were working in collusion to defeat the Congress, he even asked his supporters at a meeting: “What face will I have in the party and nationally, if I get defeated in Palamuru.”
He often tries to strike an emotional chord with voters by stoking the ‘atma gauravam (self-respect)’ of Palamuru, which is another name for Mahbubnagar district.
The Kalwakurthy bus stand. (Photo: Rahul V Pisharody)
Revanth, who was born in Kondareddypalli village in Mahbubnagar, had started his electoral innings by winning as an Independent from Midjil Mandal at the ZPTC (zilla parishad territorial constituency) elections in 2006. The Kodangal Assembly seat, which Revanth won in 2009, 2014 and 2023, is also part of the district.
In the November 2023 Assembly polls, the Congress won 12 of the 14 Assembly segments in Mahbubnagar. Overall, the party won 64 seats as against the BRS’s 39 and the BJP’s 8 in the 119-member House.
Unemployment and migration are among key issues in the Mahbubnagar belt.
Claiming that the Congress would win 14 out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Mallu Ravi says the fight in Nagarkurnool is for the second spot, between the BJP and the BRS. “People are happy with the Congress’s government here and tired of inflation and unemployment in the country caused by the BJP’s dictatorial rule at the Centre. I have been an MP here for two terms, and I’ll use my experience to get as many national projects as possible to Nagarkurnool. I am also close to CM Revanth and will set up skill development centres, industries, etc. in consultation with local MLAs,” he told The Indian Express, adding that he would bring new railway lines and national highway connectivity to Nagarkurnool.
Surender Goud of Wanaparthy town, a staunch supporter of Congress, is confident that the party will sweep the state. (Photo: Rahul V Pisharody)
His BRS rival Praveen Kumar has a reputation of having worked for the marginalised during his 9-year tenure as the secretary of social welfare educational institutions in Telangana.
Kumar says his public life would be a continuation of where he left off as a government servant. “People are rallying behind the BRS because only we will fight to protect the interests of the state and its people. I want to make Nagarkurnool the skilling capital of the country. There is a lot of scope for eco-tourism, agriculture-based and forest-based industries. Agriculture credit and the sale of spurious seeds are problems I will try to sort out. We need to rejuvenate the economy to create jobs in the private and public sectors. Wanaparthy has been an education hub of Palamuru. We want to make it the Kota (in Rajasthan) of Telangana,” he says.
“Ramulu as a BRS candidate secured 5 lakh votes in 2019, beating Mallu Ravi by 1.9 lakh votes. The party hopes to add BJP’s vote bank to Ramulu’s BRS support base and ensure Bharat’s victory. Besides, people want Modi to continue as PM for the third term,” says a BJP leader.
Pebbeti Manohar in Wanaparthy town feels SC votes will be divided between Congress and BRS, and benefit BJP. (Photo: Rahul V Pisharody)
In a constituency dominated by Scheduled Caste Madigas, the BJP is also hoping to gain electorally from their assurance on SC sub-categorisation. Manda Krishna Madiga of Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) has been sharing the stage with PM Modi and BJP leaders in the state, including Bharat.
Kumar alleges that Ramulu was the “worst-performing MP” from the state. A native of Alampur in the constituency, Kumar assures he will ask as many questions about the constituency as possible in Parliament, unlike the incumbent, who, according to him, has only asked six questions during the term. “I want to negotiate with the Centre and make Nagarkurnool a pilot project for every government scheme. I want to make it a case study in Harvard on Human Development Indicators too,” he said.
As the battle gains steam, voters in Nagarkurnool appear to be weighing their options.
“Except for free bus travel to women, none of the Congress’s six guarantees have been implemented. I have just bought an LPG cylinder for Rs 900 and paid an electricity bill of Rs 350 (these are the Congress’s two guarantees, of a cylinder at Rs 450 and 200 units of free electricity — both of which it claims to have fully implemented). Only if Rahul Gandhi wins at the Centre, can Revanth fulfil all his promises,” says Md Samiuddin, a fruit vendor outside Kalwakurthy bus stand. He adds that Congress being in power and Mallu Ravi being a familiar name, the party is likely to sail through smoothly.
Md Hassan, a medical store owner in Nagarkurnool town, feels that BRS, though out of power, still has a chance. “People do not have anything against KCR (former CM K Chandrasekhar Rao). They voted out local MLAs due to various reasons. Now Congress has given a lot of hope to the people, but not everyone is happy due to the shoddy implementation of their schemes,” he says.
Pebbeti Manohar, an automobile store owner in Wanaparthy town, says it is a tough fight with an advantage for the BJP, since the SC votes, which amount to over 70% of the electorate, will be divided between the Congress and the BRS.
There are also those voters who feel there is a “Modi wave” sweeping across Telangana. P Shankar, who runs a general store in Kalwakurthy town, says, “BJP led by Modi is the only party that cares for the public. Everyone is spending their money, so that they can double it after they win. The Congress schemes are dividing the people and are not good for the country.”
M Krishnaji, who runs a printing press outside the zilla parishad office in Nagarkurnool town, adds, “BJP is going to storm back to power at the Centre. If we have a BJP MP, there will be better implementation of Central schemes.”
All 17 Lok Sabha seats of the state are going to polls in the fourth phase on May 13. In the 2019 polls, the Congress had managed to win just 3 seats as against the BRS’s 9 and the BJP’s 4.
