Karimnagar: Land grabbing and the sand mafia have become the main issues in the election campaign in old Karimnagar district.
Contesting candidates and ticket aspirants are levelling allegations of involvement in land grabbing and the sand mafia against each other.
The war of words between the contesting candidates of the TRS and the BJP began as elections fast approach.
The TRS has announced former MLA Gangula Kamalakar’s name for the Karimnagar seat while Bandi Sanjay, who stood second in the last elections, is a strong contender for the BJP party ticket. Both Sanjay and Kamalakar seem to be fighting much before the filing of nominations.
The Nerella Dalit victims alleged the involvement of the ruling TRS party leaders in the illegal sand mining in Sircilla. Dalit organisations took out a bike rally on Tuesday expressing their solidarity with the Nerella Dalit victims who were on a relay hunger strike demanding the caretaker minister K.T. Rama Rao revoke the false cases registered against them for raising their voices against illegal sand mining.
Kamalakar threatened Sanjay with serious action if the latter did not stop making false allegation against him and added that Sanjay had failed to prove the allegations against him.
He said Sanjay had been making the same allegation against him for a long time and dared him to ensure I-T raids on him if he really had guts as his party was in power at the Centre.
Sanjay said he had just quoted the allegations which appeared in the media and his party leaders made on various occasions against Kamalakar.
Illegal sand mining is rampant in the districts which share the rivers Godavari and Manair. The involvement of political leaders in gutka mafia is also haunting contesting candidates.
