Adilabad: The ruling BRS performed poorly in the erstwhile Adilabad district in the Assembly elections. It won only two seats in the districts whereas it grabbed nine seats out of ten in the last elections, adding to the drubbing of the party.
Of the ten constituencies, Kova Laxmi won from Asifabad and Anil Jadhav won the Boath seat. BRS candidates Koneru Konappa of Sirpur(T), Jogu Ramanna of Adilabad, and Bhukya Johnson Naik of Khanapur were defeated by a small margin.
In the last elections, Congress's lone candidate Atram Sakku won from Asifabad and later she joined the BRS.
The BRS high command has changed its incumbents Atram Sakku in Asifabad, Rathod Bapurao in Boath, and Rekha Naik in Khanapur and replaced them with Kova Laxmi, Anil Jadhav, and Bhukya Johnson Naik respectively. The new candidates were elected in Asifabad and Boath and lost in Khanapur.
This has become a setback for the BRS in reaching the magic figure to score a hat-trick, though the erstwhile Adilabad had been a stronghold of the ruling party.
Minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy lost with a huge majority at the hands of BJP candidate Aleti Maheshwar Reddy and Balka Suman who is considered a strong leader also lost from Chennur.
Bhukya Johnson Naik also suffered a loss in the election despite IT minister K.T. Rama Rao campaigning for him in Khanapur.
A senior BRS leader opined that the results would have been different for BRS if the party's high command had replaced some incumbents with new faces in some constituencies.
Corruption charges against a few BRS MLAs and sexual allegations against one MLA also affected the winning chances of them in some seats, he said.
