The Bhongir Lok Sabha constituency, at about 50 km from Telangana’s capital of Hyderabad, witnesses a clash of perceived wave of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Centre and that of the Congress which occupied power in the State five months ago.
But popular symbols, such as the recently ousted Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s (BRS) car, and the long-established Communist Party of India (Marxist)‘s hammer, sickle and star, which has considerable cadres are also crucial contestants.
In 2019, the constituency witnessed a fierce contest between Congress’s Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and the then ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s (now BRS) sitting parliamentarian Dr. Boora Narsaiah Goud, a surgeon, who was the party loyalist since the separate Telangana movement. Mr. Reddy managed to win by a vote margin of just over 5,200 against Dr. Goud.
In that election, Dr. Goud realised that popular electoral symbols, even the ruling party’s car, may fetch victory. But symbols could contribute defeat too. A surpriser in that ballot unit, an independent candidate Singapaka Lingam got close to 30,000 votes.
In 2014, amid a wave of the newly-carved Telangana, Dr. Goud won by over 30,500 vote margin. In 2009, just year after the Delimitation Commission of India carved the Bhongir Lok Sabha seat, it was won by Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy of the Congress.
Mr. Goud quit the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in October 2022, ahead of a crucial Munugode bye election and joined the BJP, whose heavyweight contestant in that poll surprisingly was sitting Congress legislator Rajgopal Reddy who had switched sides.
Contestants of the 2024 polls
The present contestants and their sides stand as: BJP’s Dr. Goud, debutant Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy doubly strengthened by former victors Komatireddy brothers, BRS’s Kyama Mallesh and CPI(M)‘s Mahamd Jahangir.
Mr. Mallesh had been a staunch Congressman and president of Ranga Reddy District Congress Committee till he was suspended in 2018. He now banks heavily on the car symbol and only Jangaon, one of the seven Assembly segments in the constituency, won by BRS in the State Assembly election.
On the other hand, CPI(M), while it is an ally of the Congress in all 16 seats in the State, it decided to fight alone here. The most aggressive campaigner despite the scorching weather in the constituency so far, its communist foot soldiers in at least five Assembly segments could potentially alter the result.
The constituency has the Bibinagar All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the NH-163 Kodangal-Bhopalapatnam (Chhattisgarh) passing through, the renovated Sri Lakshmi Narsimha Swamy Temple and irrigation tanks and reservoirs.
The pollution of river Musi which traverses the district all the way till Nalgonda and effluents from various laboratories and chemical industries remains a sore point.
The MMTS railway project till Raigiri, development of industries and the MSME Park at Dandu Malkapur in Choutuppal are yet to take off.
