There is a lot of news coming out from Jubilee Hills Assembly Constituency as its gearing up for Telangana State Assembly Elections 2018. With early elections called by Chief Minister K. Chandra Shekhar Rao also called as KCR, 105 candidate names have been declared for 119 assembly constituencies of Telangana State. Present MLA Maganti Gopinath is declared as TRS candidate from Jubilee Hills for coming Assembly Elections of 2018.
When we look at the history, we see that the old Khairatabad MLA constituency which had the largest voters in the state of Andhra Pradesh, was divided into three new MLA constituencies named as Jubilee Hills, Kukatpally, Khairatabad which first went for elections in 2009. P Vishnuvardhan Reddy also called as PVR, son of mass leader P Janardhan Reddy, also called as PJR, of Congress won from the old Khairatabad seat in 2007 and new Jubilee Hills seat in 2009 but lost in 2014. Maganti Gopinath from TDP won the seat in 2014.
Talking to #KhabarLive ex-MLA P. Vishnuvardhan Reddy said “I am contesting the Jubilee Hills Assembly elections from a Congress ticket.” On the question of the present TDP-Congress alliance and in case this seat ticket is given to TDP candidate as earlier Gopinath won this seat on a TDP ticket, Vishnu replied ” This seat was won two times by Congress, TDP won last time due to its tie-up wilth BJP, and now such tie-up does not exist. I got 35,000 votes in the 2014 elections which was the best performace by a City MLA contestants from Congress, this seat will be given to Congress.”
Gopinath was with TDP since its launch in 1983, and is mainly a film producer. TDP which had tie up with BJP won the seat in 2014 for the first time as there was distribution of minority votes amongst Congress, TRS and MIM. Although Gopinath was made Greater Hyderabad President of TDP party in October 2015, ahead of the Municipal Elections, under his leadership the TDP won only 1 seat out of 150, where as TRS won 99 seats. There were also reports circulating that Gopinath would be arrested for Cash-For-Votes scam. Sensing that TRS has dominated the Hyderabad City after winning the State Election, Mr Gopinath immediately jumped into TRS party in March 2016.
There is a lot of turmoil in TRS party right now regarding candidate selection, due to allegations against the sitting MLA of wrongdoings, and not declaring a minority candidate even with presence of such high number of minority votes. The TRS party corporators with majority of the cadre has opposed the selection of Mr Gopinath by calling press conference and public meetings in the constituency.
Presently, there are seven Municipal Corporators who come under the Jubilee Hills MLA constituency. Out of these seven, four candidates come from minority community. Also in the last election of 2014, MIM party got 2nd position with around 50,000 votes, supporting the argument of high minority votes.
M.A. Shafi of TRS party who is present Corporator from Rahmath Nagar Division, belonging to Jubilee Hills Constituency says ” We have 45% minority votes in Jubilee Hills Consitutency, where we have about 1,10,000 Muslim voters and about 38,000 Christian and Jain voters. We request Hon’ble Chief Minister KCR and Shri KTR
to chose only a minority candidate from this constituency. Also, the present MLA has abused and harassed some Masjid and Temple commitees, and he should not be given ticket.”
Syed Naveed, senior TRS leader says, “When Telangana got separated, TRS won the 2014 Assembly Elections with the help of minority votes, as acknowledged by CM KCR, who promised 12% reservations to muslims. We see a lot in political parties, whenever a constituency has Reddy majority voters, the ticket is given to a Reddy,
similarly when SC voters are majority then SC candidate is chosen, then why minority candidate is not given ticket in a constituency where the most voters are from minority.
There are many works not done by the sitting MLA. The 14 years fight for Telangana was fought because Andhra leaders were ignoring Telangana Region. Again those Andhra leaders from other parties have joined TRS, and such Andhra leaders who were opposed to the cause of Telangana are imposed on Telangana people now. How could such Andhra people give us Golden Telangana? ”
Responding to #KhabarLive about the revolt in the TRS party cadre and allegations on him, Mr Gopinath said ” We have done development work in Jubilee Hills and distributed pamphlets to the people on the works done. Such conflicts and troubles happen in all political parties. The TRS high command will take final decision on any issue of infighting. ”
Political pundits believe KCR will not stick to his promises and the first candidate list is given just to prevent candidates from jumping to other parties, and this first list will definitely change. There would be many surprises and shocks during distribution of B-forms to the candidates. Lets wait and watch whether a minority candidate will be chosen by TRS high command. #KhabarLive
