Sanatnagar a tough constituency but Dekhna Hum Honge Kamyab says Dr Neelima Kota

Hyderabad: Sanatnagar constituency once again has a highly educated and qualified candidate Dr Kota Neelima who is not only an author, a social scientist, a journalist but also a passionate politician.

Though she holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Delhi and a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, a Senior Research Fellow at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC, she is perfect local. ‘A human at heart.’

Talking to Hans India, Neelima said she was moved by the sufferings of those living in low-lying areas of the City. She said she saw how people suffered during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and the worst deluge she saw over decades. Such incidents changed her perception towards life and made her to jump into active politics.

As an author she had travelled far and wide and saw the agony of families of those farmers who committed suicide and understood the problems of rural poor particularly women. She felt that political power was must if one had to develop any area.

She said she had chosen Sanatnagar as there were sizeable number of voters who come from lower middle class and below poverty line families whose issues remain unresolved. She said she knew that she has to take on a senior politician and a BRS heavyweight Talsani Srinivas Yadav who is also a Minister.

Sanathnagar remains one of the distressed constituencies where civic issues are galore. A spell of rain for couple of hours would inundate most of the areas. In 2020 deluge, water level touched the shoulders and one could not enter the colonies. This prompted her to decide to contest from here. Is Sanatnagar not party of Global city? Should all development be centralised towards areas like Hi-tech city? She asks.

Neelima who is the wife of MP and AICC leader Pawan Khera, the exit of former Minister Marri Shashidhar Reddy from Congress gave an opportunity to enter the fray from this constituency. She said she has been working with the people of Sanatnagar for last four years. She said while Talsani had failed to develop the constituency, even her predecessor from Congress party did not do much.

Neelima said that she has so far reached to 50 k houses explaining the six guarantees announced by Congress Party. As she is fluent in three languages, English, Telugu and Urdu, she could easily gel with the voters. One thing, she said was clear that there was a strong undercurrent of anti-incumbency factor in the constituency. She exudes confidence that women would be her main strength. They rue that they get drinking water for 30 minutes once in 48 hours. There are miles to go…. she adds.