HYDERABAD: A triangular contest is on the cards in many divisions in the
Karimnagar municipal corporation, which will go to the polls on January 24. Incidentally, it will be the fourth time the corporation will witness an electoral battle after its formation.
With BJP and Congress fielding candidates in most wards, the heat is on TRS nominees. As the
saffron party bagged the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency in the parliamentary elections held in 2019, the contest appears to be heading for an interesting finish.
BJP’s charge is being led by
Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar, while state minister Gangula Kamlakar is TRS’ go-to man in the civic body. Unlike the rest of the state, the filing of nominations in Karimnagar began two days late due to a court ruling. At the end of withdrawal of nominations, 363 candidates were left in the fray.
Both BJP and TRS delayed giving nomination forms to aspirants till the last day as there was intense competition within the parties as well. Both Sanjay and Kamalakar were involved on war of words, with the MP strongly defending the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
In 2014, when the civic polls were conducted for 50 divisions, TRS won 24 wards, while Congress bagged 14 wards. For the mayor post, there is stiff competition in TRS with former mayor Ravindar Singh throwing his hat in the ring, but it seems the minister has his own plans, sources said.
With the mayor post becoming an open category position, there are many contenders in BJP too, but the saffron party has not named any mayoral candidate. On the other hand, Congress has already announced its mayoral candidate, P Ramesh.