This story is from March 16, 2019

To checkmate Congress in Khammam, KCR to lead campaign from front

Having virtually triggered an exodus from the Congress to the TRS in Khammam, the ruling party is now eying the Khammam Lok Sabha seat, a bastion of the Congress and TDP and from where it has never been victorious earlier. Sitting MP P Srinivas Reddy had actualy won the seat on YSR Congress ticket and later switched over to the TRS.
To checkmate Congress in Khammam, KCR to lead campaign from front
HYDERABAD: Having virtually triggered an exodus from the Congress to the TRS in Khammam, the ruling party is now eying the Khammam Lok Sabha seat, a bastion of the Congress and TDP and from where it has never been victorious earlier. Sitting MP P Srinivas Reddy had actualy won the seat on YSR Congress ticket and later switched over to the TRS.
Sources said chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will himself monitor the Khammam LS elections.
TRS working president K T Rama Rao was also set to hold a party meeting in Khammam on Saturday but the meeting has been rescheduled.
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Of the six MLAs the Congress has from Khammam Parliamentary constituency, three have walked over to the TRS. “For the first time, CM KCR will be the man in chrage for Khammam Lok Sabha constituency. This time, the party is very keen to win this seat,” Khammam MLA Puvvada Ajay Kumar (TRS) told TOI. Apart from monitoring the Khammam LS seat, the CM is likely to address at least one public meeting in this border district, the MLA said.
Sources in the party said former TDP Khammam MP Nama Nageswara Rao is keen to be nominated from here with TRS ticket but indications are that the CM is not inclined to admit him into the party fold.
That the TRS is giving a lot of importance to Khammam is indicated by the fact that a team of officials from the CM’s office are camping in Khammam and overseeing the progress of the Sita Rama Lift Irrigation project. Once irrigated, the project will provide water to the districts of Khammam, Bhadradri-Kothagudem and Mahbubabad. Incidentally, the three Congress MLAs who joined the TRS in the last few days said it was the assuarance given to them by KCR of speeding up the works on the ongoing irrigation works in Khammam was that made them cross over. One or two more Congress netas are likely to make the switch by quoting the same reason.

According to the sources, apart from sitting MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Vankayalapati Raja, a businessman from Khammam, is keen for the TRS ticket from Khammam.
What can upstage the TRS chances of winning Khammam LS seat is a tactical understanding between the Congress and TDP, both of which have huge support in this constituency. The Left parties too have considerable support here but the CPM and the CPI have already announced a tie-up in Telangana and will be contesting the Khammam LS seat. In view of the poaching of its MLAs by the TRS, the Congress will be all the more determined to win the seat. Those vying for the Khammam seat in the Congress include fromer MP Renuka Chowdary and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikaramarka’s wife Nandini.
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