A new constituency. Fresh faces. A keen contest. The poll scene in Malkajgiri assembly constituency is interestingly poised with a triangular contest.
All the parties have fielded new faces and each of them is battling it out for victory. Former Malkajgiri municipal chairperson and TDP candidate V Sharada Mahesh is being challenged by former Malkajgiri councillor and Congress nominee Akula Rajender.
To brighten the prospects of his party candidate, Y S Rajasekara Reddy himself campaigned with a road show recently. On the other hand, TDP candidate Sharada drew great strength from her husband Mahesh. Both of them, accompanied by around 200 TDP activists clad in party colours, were seen knocking on every door in the constituency, literally pleading for votes. Nearly 50 burqa-clad Muslim women too joined the padayatra holding TDP flags, to woo Muslim voters. Sharada said her work as municipal chairperson would fetch her votes.
But she is not resting on just those laurels. Attacking the Congress at every opportunity, she said, “If the Congress is elected, whatever government land that is left will be sold in the name of development.”
Both Congress and TDP have fielded BC candidates of the ‘Mudiraj’ community. However, Sharada hopes BC voters would solidly stand by her as she is a woman. But then Congress’ A Rajender is also equally confident of securing BC votes.
The locals, however, have a lot of grievances. “Neither the ruling Congress nor the sitting MLA G Sayanna of TDP bothered about our problems,” they said. According to them, the eight railway gates in Malkajgiri and four in Alwal are causing severe traffic jams. “I go to Osmania University Arts College by a bus and it’s an unpleasant experience as traffic gets stranded whenever a gate is closed to allow a train to go by. And there are eight gates! Nobody coming to Malkajgiri can escape these hurdles,” said B Sharat from P V N Colony.
Residents also complained that drinking water that is supplied only once in three days is hardly sufficient. “I will solve all these problems,” Congress candidate Rajender promised.
While the main fight appears to be between the TDP and the Congress candidates, the Prajarajyam Party (PRP) and BJP meetings are also getting a decent response. Most of the residents in the Malkajgiri are settlers. “The PRP has a good chance of victory as there are many Chiranjeevi fans in the constituency especially among youth and women. So we will give tough fight to both TDP and Congress,” PRP candidate C Kanaka Reddy claimed.
PRP has found a good response in some pockets like Adarsh Bagh, PVN Colony, Indra Nehru Nagar, etc. “Both the TDP and the Congress are corrupt. The PRP is new and has declared that it will fight corruption. I would like to give it a chance,” said R Durgaiah, 40, a tent house owner.
Much as the Congress candidate is optimistic, the party’s vote bank is set to split as local senior Congressman G Suryanarayana Reddy is standing as an independent candidate as he was denied ticket by the party from Malkajgiri. The BJP has fielded M Balalingam, a former vice-chairman of Malkajgiri municipality.
CONSTITUENCY PROFILE
Total no. of voters: 350,227 Male voters: 1,78,557 Female voters: 1,71,670
The main areas: Malkajgiri, Mirjalguda, Moula Ali, Old Safilguda, Neredmet, Vinayaknagar, Ramakrishnapuram, Ammuguda, B J R Nagar, Vasanthipuri, Premvijayanagar Colony, Venkateshwara nagar, Prashant Nagar, Durga Nagar, Sardar Patel Nagar, Balasaraswathi Nagar, Narasimha Reddy Nagar, Maruthi Nagar, Kakatiya nagar, Defence Colony, Devi Nagar, Balram Nagar, Bharani Colony, Vivekananda Colony, Shakti Nagar, JJ Nagar
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