Karimnagar: A “rebel” menace is likely to haunt the ruling BRS in the upcoming assembly polls. Some leaders who aspired for MLA tickets but were snubbed by the party leadership are readying to contest the Assembly elections against sitting MLAs of the party in the Karimnagar region.
Notably, several leaders had played prominent roles in the separate Telangana state movement and have direct access to the top trio comprising Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, IT minister K.T. Rama Rao and MLC K. Kavitha. All along, they worked hard to strengthen the party in the united district.
However, many of them feel they got no recognition from the party leadership and were never given any post. They hoped that this time the party leadership would allot them MLA tickets based on their popularity in the recent surveys conducted by the party.
However, Chandrashekar Rao’s allotment of tickets to all the sitting MLAs of the BRS except in Vemulawada came as a shock to them. They took this as an insult and say, “We do not want to continue as second-rung leaders. With encouragement from our followers, we would contest against the sitting MLAs as rebel candidates in the respective constituencies.”
In Peddapalli district, Nalla Manohar Reddy who served the party for more than two decades aspired to get the MLA ticket. He has now resigned from the party and announced he would contest as a rebel candidate from Peddapalli.
In Ramagundam assembly segment, BRS’s ZPTC Sandhya Rani started her campaign after the party allotted the MLA ticket to sitting MLA Chander Patel.
In Manthani assembly segment, the single window chairman of PACS, Challa Narayana Reddy was disappointed with the allotment of ticket to ZP chairperson Putta Madhukar and said he would file nomination papers against and intensified his political activities.
In Vemulawada, after allotting the MLA ticket to Chalmeda Laxmi Narsimha Rao following the appointment of sitting MLA Channamneni Ramesh as chief agriculture adviser to the state government, senior party leaders A Manohar Reddy and Goli Mohan are getting ready to throw a challenge to him at the hustings.
In Manakondur, Arepalli Mohan who was denied the MLA ticket decided to either join the Congress on assurance of the party ticket or contest on his own as a rebel candidate against the sitting MLA Rasamayi Balakishan.
In Huzurabad, KCR allotted the MLA ticket to Padi Koushik Reddy but Ponaganti Mallaiah and Tummeti Sammireddy, who were in the race for the party ticket, have vowed to oppose his candidature.
