Ponnam Prabhakar Decides Against Contesting from Karimnagar Seat, WHY?

Hyderabad: Senior Congress leader Ponnam Prabhakar has decided to contest the Telangana Assembly polls from a little explored territory. Ponnam, who has fought the parliamentary elections from Karimnagar constituency in the past, is now testing his political fortunes from Husnabad Assembly constituency. 

The Telangana Congress has so far received applications from over 1,000 aspirants for the upcoming Assembly elections. Ponnam too has submitted his application stating that he wishes to contest the election from Husnabad segment.  

The question is why did the Congress leader prefer a new segment over his Karimnagar constituency. In 2014, Ponnam contested the election from the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat, but he was defeated by the BRS candidate. The Congress leader again contested from the same segment in 2019, however, BJP candidate Bandi Sanjay Kumar defeated him in the parliamentary election. Caste seems to be the factor behind Ponnam’s sudden change of mind because the Goud community dominates the vote base in Husnabad and the Congress leader is hoping to take advantage of this.

The former MLA Aligireddy Praveen Reddy is hoping for the ticket from Husnabad Assembly constituency. He’s already begun a door-to-door election campaign as a Congress candidate. As the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) is finalising the names of party candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls, it remains to be seen if the high command allows Ponnam to contest the election from Husnabad and if that happens will Praveen Reddy be asked to sacrifice his stronghold?

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