The Congress on Sunday secured 61 seats, past the halfway mark of 60 in the 119-member Telangana Legislative Assembly. The party is set to form the first non-BRS government in Telangana since its formation in 2014. However, one BJP candidate who also grabbed headlines during the results was Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy. Popularly known as KVR, he is BJP's candidate from the Kamareddy constituency.
KVR has become the giant killer of the Telangana Legislative Assembly election, as he defeated outgoing Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and PCC president A Revanth Reddy -- who could become the new CM -- on Sunday.
Venkata Ramana Reddy defeated KCR, his nearest rival, by a margin of 6,741 votes. The Kamareddy constituency attracted attention ever since KCR announced his decision to contest from there and the contest hotted up as Congress fielded Revanth Reddy to take him on.
Both KCR and Revanth Reddy had contested from other seats as well, in addition to Kamareddy, and won. Despite his high-profile opponents, Venkata Ramana Reddy kept up the fight. KCR himself addressed a rally at Kamareddy and his son and BRS working president K T Rama Rao had also campaigned for his father. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah addressed a public meeting at Kamareddy in support of Revanth Reddy's candidature where the Congress had also released a 'BC Declaration' for the assembly polls.
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However, Venkata Ramana Reddy's candidature got a boost with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a rally at Kamareddy. Venkata Ramana Reddy had served as Zilla Parishad Chairman of the undivided Nizamabad district in the past. Kamareddy was part of the undivided Nizamabad district but is now a separate district after the BRS government carried out a reorganisation.
He was earlier with the Congress but joined the BJP a few years ago. Political analysts attribute Venkata Ramana Reddy's success to his philanthropic work for temples and others and his fight against the master plan for Kamareddy town announced by the BRS government. Venkata Ramana Reddy had spearheaded the fight against the master plan. The plan was, however, shelved following protests from farmers.
(With inputs from PTI)
