Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao seems to have lost hopes on winning any seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the state.
It is evident from the way, he is choosing the party candidates for contesting the Lok Sabha elections.
Except in two or three places, KCR has picked up non-serious candidates, as those who were selected in the past have dumped the party and jumped into other parties.
While sitting MP from Chevella B Ranjith Reddy defected to the Congress, though the BRS announced his name for the same seat, another candidate Kadiyam Kavya, daughter of sitting MLA Kadiyam Srihari, who has been picked up for Warangal seat, also opted out of the party and got the Congress ticket for the same seat.
Stunned by Kavya’s defection, KCR virtually struggled to find a right candidate for Warangal seat, which was once a BRS bastion.
Now that Srihari defected to the Congress along with his daughter, his arch rival in Station Ghanpur constituency Tadikonda Rajaiah, who had earlier quit the BRS, returned to the party.
He was expecting the BRS ticket from Warangal LS seat. All said and done, he has a lot of support base there and he would have definitely given a tough fight.
KCR, too, leaked to the media on Friday morning that the BRS might field Rajaiah for Warangal seat.
But by evening, KCR changed his plan. He announced Dr Marepalli Sudhir Kumar, present chairperson of Hanamkonda zilla parishad, as the party candidate from Warangal parliamentary constituency.
A resident of Hanamkonda district, Sudhir Kumar hails from the Madiga community. He worked in the Telangana agitation for separate statehood since 2001, has been a loyal party activist.
After discussing with the party leaders from erstwhile Warangal district, Chandrashekhar Rao finalised his name which received unanimous support from the party cadre.
Sources said Sudhir Kumar is not a strong force compared to the Congress and the BJP. Yet, KCR preferred him, leaving everybody in surprise.
