HYDERABAD: From the day Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had announced his plans for setting up the third front, party MLAs have started putting the pressure on him to contest from their district.
It is presumed that Mr Rao will contest for the Lok Sabha seat in the next general elections as he had announced that he will play a key role in the national politics after 2019 general elections.
In the past, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief was elected to the Lok Sabha from Karimnagar and Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha constituencies.
This time, however, TRS MLAs from Nalgonda have requested their party chief to contest from the Nalgonda Lok Sabha constituency during the 2019 general elections.
Currently, Gutta Sukhe-ndar Reddy is representing the Nalgonda Lok Sabha constituency. In 2014 elections, Mr Gutta was elected from the Telugu Desam but later joined the TRS. Recently Mr Gutta was appointed the chairman of the Telangana Rythu Saman-waya Samithi.
TRS MLAs from Karimnagar too have also invited the Chief Minister to contest from the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency., which is currently represented by G. Vinod Kumar.
Like in 2014. the elections for the Telangana Assembly and the Lok Sabha will be held at the same time.
The TRS leaders believe that their winning chan-ces will get a major boost if the party chief contests from their district.
Another reason is that if Mr Rao contests from their district, the financial burden of the election campaign may come down for them.
The Lok Sabha constituency from where the TRS chief will contest will look after the financing the electioneering.
The MLAs cannot spend the entire amount since the party will share to some extent.
Sources in Telangana’s ruling party said that the TRS chief may prefer to contest from the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat to contest in the 2019 elections as he was elected twice from this constituency.
