Parties weigh chances of success in Chevella

Rajendranagar: Soon after wrapping up the EVMs after the polling for 17th Lok Sabha elections concluded in Telangana, especially in Chevella segment, the leaders of different parties, mainly the TRS, are quite sure of winning their foray while the opposition Congress party too appears fully confident of emerging successful against the main rival.

Chevella has fared a bit better in polling percentage with 53.22% as against those three constituencies encompassing the Hyderabad city such as Malkajgiri (49.40%), Secunderabad (46.26%) and Hyderabad (44.76%) the lowest among all.

"Of course, the TRS has good chances of winning the election. In Chevella, the rural areas of constituency have a major vote presence and they all are getting benefited by the welfare schemes initiated by the TRS party. Even though the voting percentage is quite low at level, but still the people show their full support in favour of TRS party. Aasara pension and Rythu Bandhu Scheme among others, too, have played a major role in getting the people closer to the party. As such, the result would be the same as it was witnesses in 2018 general elections," claimed T Srinivas Reddy, the TRS Corporator from Mailardevpally in Rajendranagar.

While the TRS and the MIM went together in the foray by supporting each other in the state, the Chevella constituency saw a strong dissent and difference of opinion among the leaders of both the parties during the campaigning.

"Here, Congress party is quite sure of having an upper hand in the election. Out of 7 assembly segments, four of them including Rajendranagar, Tandur, Pargi and Chevella saw a good support in favour of Congress party. We are receiving a similar input from Maheshwaram, Vikarabad and Serilingampally constituencies, too. As far as the Rajendranagar constituency is concerned, the majority of Muslim votes has gone in support of the party. Almost all the minority dominated areas such as Sulaiman Nagar and Hassan Nagar saw a good enthusiasm towards the congress party," claimed Mohammed Jaweed, a Congress leader of Rajendranagar.

It is said that the Congress was very much benefited by the dissent that brewed among the TRS minority leaders in the constituency who were miffed with the MIM campaigning in favour of their party candidate. Here, the Congress candidate Konda Vishweshwar Reddy is seeking re-election on a Congress ticket. He was elected on a Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) ticket in 2014 but joined the Congress party ahead of assembly elections. Exasperation among the TRS minority leaders was witnessed in almost all the seven assembly constituencies of Chevella. This apparently gave the Congress candidate a leeway over others in terms of getting support from the people. It was because of this reason the political circle is muckraking about the cross voting on the day the polling was held.

As far as the BJP is concerned, the saffron party tried to impact the result by highlighting the central government schemes and tried to create polarisation of votes by raking up issues like cross-border terrorism, Pulwama attack and the subsequent airstrikes in Pakistan. However, a majority of voters in Chevella comes from rural areas where the sole survival of poor people, especially the farmers, depends on agriculture or daily wages. Here, people judge the welfare schemes and are least aware of the nitty-gritty of political squabbling between the state and the centre.

People are seen speculating about the hefty polling in favour of Congress party here on the day of polling and are hence expecting the result in its favour.

Rajendranagar, Serilingampally, Maheswaram, Chevella, Pargi, Vikarabad and Tandur are the assembly segments under Chevella parliamentary constituency. Here, the total number of voters stands at 24,42,600 that includes 12,64,111 male and 11,78,259 female voters.