‘Mini India’ Malkajgiri: prestige seat for Congress, political lifeline for BJP’s Eatala Rajender | Hyderabad News

The constituency has emerged as one of the hot seats in the state, especially since A Revanth Reddy vacated it to become the chief minister a few months ago. With over 32 lakh enrolled voters, Malkajgiri is not only the largest in the country but also known as “Mini India” for its large proportions of migrant populations, who have settled here for decades and centuries, from different parts of the country.

Rajender is also banking on this factor when he appeals to voters. “Development has been elusive in Malkajgiri in the last 10 years and we all know what Rajender is capable of. We have seen him tackle the Covid pandemic as the state’s health minister. We support him and want him to be part of Modi’s third term,” said Rajesh Kushwaha, who was in the gathering at Quthbullapur, amid the slogans of Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Jai Shri Ram.

In 2019, voters of Malkajgiri gave Revanth Reddy a crucial lifeline in politics. Only a few months before, he had lost his Assembly seat, Kodangal, which he won in 2009 and 2014.

While this defeat came as a major setback soon after he joined the Congress, Malkajgiri voters sent him to Parliament with a majority of over 10,000 votes at a time when the BRS was a strong force to be reckoned with. Two years later, he was appointed chief of the state Congress and sworn in as the second chief minister two more years later.  Rajender now is in a similar situation.

In a three-cornered fight, the Congress has taken it up as a matter of prestige to retain the seat, viewing the election as a referendum on Revanth Reddy’s performance as an MP in the last five years.

And the BRS, which faces an existential crisis, sees this as an opportunity to assert itself since it had won all the seven Assembly segments under the Lok Sabha constituency last year.

For veteran politician Rajender, it is an opportunity for a political resurgence after he lost both seats he contested in last year’s Assembly polls.

Malkagiri also hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s roadshow early in March, making the BJP’s priorities clear.

To take on Rajender, the Congress has nominated Vikarabad zilla parishad chairperson Patnam Suneetha Reddy while the BRS has nominated Ragidi Laxma Reddy.

Interestingly, Suneetha Reddy recently shifted loyalties from the BRS to the Congress, whereas Laxma Reddy left the Congress and joined the BRS ahead of the Assembly polls.

Nineteen more candidates are in the fray. In 2019, Revanth Reddy secured a vote share of 39 per cent, the best since the constituency was created in 2008. Congress leader Sarve Satyanarayana and BRS leader Ch Malla Reddy (then in TDP) won in 2009 and 2014, respectively.

All the seven Assembly segments—Secunderabad Cantonment, LB Nagar, Uppal, Kukatpally, Quthbullapur, Malkajgiri and Medchal—are with the BRS.

B T Srinivasan, general secretary of the United Federation of Resident Welfare Associations and a resident of Devi Nagar in the constituency, said the BJP had an upper hand in the constituency.

“This time in Malkajgiri, people are looking for a strong voice in Parliament who can address issues concerning railways and military authorities and these are issues that only the Centre can resolve. If our representative is part of the government, these issues can be addressed easily. Also, the minority votes are now divided between the BRS and the Congress and this gives the BJP the advantage,” he added.

Malkajgiri Wants Modi as PM Again: Eatala Rajender

In an interview with The Indian ExpressRajender said there was a positive mood across Telangana to make Modi the prime minister again. “Malkajgiri has a majority of an educated population and it is largely urban. They are settlers from all across the country and they want Modi again. There are settlers from other Telangana districts too, and they know my role in the statehood agitation. I know their problems. Our opponents do not know how to talk here. What will they speak in Parliament if elected? Our voters are quite sensible,” he said.

The BJP aims to win at least 12 out of the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana. In Malkajgiri, key issues revolve around the improvement of roads, drainage network and metro rail connectivity; need for flyovers, railway overbridges and railway underbridges; housing for the poor; employment generation; setting up of IT and other industries; and issues such as frequent road closure by the military authorities in the cantonment area.

Rajender said his poll plank was related to national issues such as security, self-respect and development of the country as well as bringing solutions to all local issues.

Suneetha’s Victory is my victory: Revanth Reddy

Meanwhile, Congress candidate Suneetha Reddy is busy meeting the electorate and addressing roadshows and poll meetings. In her speeches, she promises to resolve all issues that have plagued the constituency in the last 10 years.

“Revanth Reddy has a special place for Malkajgiri in his heart and is keen to develop this region soon after the election code is lifted. Malkajgiri will become a model constituency with the support of the CM,” she has said.

The chief minister has echoed her. “Elect Suneetha to Parliament just as you chose me in 2019. Her victory is my victory. I promise all-round development of Malkajgiri,” he said at a roadshow recently.

My promise and my commitment for the development of Malkajigiri Parliament..@INCIndia @Intelangana @revanth_anumula#Patnamsuneethaformalkajgiri #Patnamsunithamahenderreddy #Suneethammaformalkajgiri #patnamformalkajgiri #anumularevanthreddy #revanhanna #cmrevanthreddy… pic.twitter.com/e1aiknoBik

– Patnam Suneetha Mahender Reddy (@Patnamsuneetha) May 2, 2024

Rajender on charge of BJP-BRS understanding

Even as the Congress continues to allege an understanding between the BJP and the BRS in five constituencies including Malkajgiri, while the BRS terms the BJP and the Congress as “Bade Bhai and Chote Bhai”, Rajender dismisses it as a joke.

This narrative gained strength once again recently when BRS MLA Ch Malla Reddy, also a former MP of Malkajgiri, exchanged greetings with Rajender in public and announced that the BJP leader was going to win this time. The Congress once again clinched the opportunity to strike.

However, Rajender said, “Is it possible that the BJP and the Congress work as one? And we are fighting the BRS. This is cheap political propaganda.” But he knows such a narrative worked against his party during the recent Assembly polls, when the BJP failed to consolidate its position as the main challenger to the BRS.

“A narrative was built against the BJP on why Kavitha (KCR’s daughter now in jail in the Delhi excise policy case) was not arrested by the ED. That narrative does not hold water now. Also, everyone now knows the failure of five months of Congress rule in Telangana,” he added.

“The Congress government in Telangana is already a failure. It is highly corrupt. They have failed to honour any of their election promises except free bus travel for women. People are unable to trust them anymore. KCR as CM intimidated Opposition leaders and lured them with financial benefits. After coming to power, Revanth is not just doing the same but much more than KCR,” he said.

The BJP candidate also said the Congress government, which had released a white paper on the state’s dire financial circumstances, should explain how it was going to implement the party’s promises.

About the Congress’s campaign theme of “Gadida Guddu”—a donkey’s egg, which suggests the BJP has done nothing for Telangana—Rajender said that Revanth Reddy as chief minister was talking and behaving like the Opposition leader he used to be.

“I have worked as the state’s finance minister and I know how things work. Whether it is a BJP or an anti-BJP government in the state, there is a system for states to get their share of funds in central schemes,” he said.

While it is often alleged that BJP candidates are too dependent on the prime minister’s charisma, Rajender, a tall leader with a political history, said that voters did consider the candidates’ capabilities. “Modi’s influence can be seen all across the country but the candidate also matters. Both are important. Voters look at the capabilities of the candidate,” he said.

BRS confident: Laxma Reddy

BRS nominee Laxma Reddy, however, is confident that the people will support his party just as they did in the Assembly polls. “The Congress gave so many guarantees and their government has failed in the first few months itself. People are watching. Ten years of the Modi government are responsible for rising inflation and just like how people rejected the BJP in the Assembly elections, the party will be rejected again. It is due to our party’s work that people chose BRS candidates in all seven Assembly segments of Malkajgiri and I am sure they will continue to stand by us,” Laxma Reddy told a news channel.