Hyderabad: Former Telugu Desam minister Babu Mohan will take on former deputy chief minister Damodar Raja Narasimha in the coming polls as a TRS nominee. The actor announced on Sunday that he would quit the Telugu Desam and join the TRS shortly.
Mr Babu Mohan won for the first time in a bypoll held for the Andhole Assembly segment in Medak in 1998 and in the following election in 1999 against Mr Raja Narasimha of the Congress. He lost to Mr Narasimha in the subsquent elections in 2004 and 2009.
Mr Babu Mohan alleged that TD president N. Chandrababu Naidu had sidelined him after his defeat and did not consider his name for the Rajya Sabha.
“I am a senior Dalit leader in the TD, but I got only insults and humiliations,” Mr Babu Mohan said, explaining why he resigned.
Replying to a question, he said TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao, while he was in the Telugu Desam, was instrumental in his joining politics.
“He is like my brother, I am going to join the TRS shortly,” he said.
The move was on the cards ever since Mr Rao decided to field potential candidates against the top Congress leaders. The TRS has fielded Krishnamohan Reddy and Putta Madhu, formerly of the YSRC, from Gadwal and Manthani segments to take on former ministers D.K. Aruna and D. Sridhar Babu.
The TRS has also announced that Shankaramma, mother of Srikanthachary who immolated himself for Telangana statehood, would take on former minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy in Huzurnagar, Nalgonda.
“We are going to announce candidates to take on Ponnala Lakshmaiah and D. Srinivas also. We don’t want to spare any single Congress leader who proclaims to be the champion of Telangana,” TRS leader Harish Rao told this correspondent.
