Hyderabad: Former Union minister Renuka Chowdary, who is retiring as the Congress’ Rajya Sabha member on April 2, is preparing to contest from the Khammam Lok Sabha constituency in the next general election.
Ms Chowdary was elected twice from Khammam, in 1999 and 2004. The Congress party does not have a sufficient number of MLAs to win even one Rajya Sabha seat in Telangana. Hence Ms Chowdary has decided to move to the lower house of Parliament.
In the 2014 election, YSRC candidate Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy won the Khammam seat, and later defected to the TRS.
The ruling TRS is much weaker in the erstwhile composite Khamman compared to other districts, and is influenced more by Andhra politics than Telangana’s.
In the last Assembly elections, the YSRC won three seats, but all of them defected to the TRS. So at present, the YSRC does not have a strong presence in Khammam district.
In the next Lok Sabha election, it will be a direct fight between the TRS and the Congress.
Speaking to this newspaper about her intention to contest from Khammam, Ms Chowdary said, “It is just an interval for me. I will contest from the Khammam LS constituency in the next ele-ctions. In the last five years of being a Rajya Sabha MP, I was never away from the people of Khammam; I was always in touch with Khammam people.”
When asked about supporting the Telugu Desam’s agitation in Parliament, she said, “It is not a question of Andhra or Telangana and has nothing to do with politics. Our demand is to implement assurances given at the time of state bifurcation for both states. Our demand is to protect the self-respect of Telugus. And I am from a Telugu state.”
