WARANGAL: Dommati Sambaiah is no newbie to the election hungama. The 57-year-old former cop has been contesting Assembly and Parliamentary elections since 2004. Having begun his political career as a sarpanch of Malakpet village, he had contested from Parkal Assembly constituency on a TDP ticket in 2004, but lost.
His bid to contest the Warangal Lok Sabha seat in 2009 also resulted in defeat. In 2014, he contested from the Station Ghanpur Assembly constituency, but alas, he had to face defeat there as well.
This time, however, he looks determined to register his first win from Warangal Lok Sabha seat as a Congress nominee. In a freewheeling chat with Express, Sambaiah shared his vision for the constituency and the strategy he plans to employ while contesting the polls. Here are some excerpts from the interview.
Are you confident of your victory this time?
Of course I am. The people want Congress to come to power at the Centre. They want to overthrow BJP, which has been continuously adopting anti-Dalit, anti-Christian and anti-Muslim policies. I am sure they would vote for me as well.
The TRS is still banking on the sentiments of the Telangana movement to win. How would you overcome that?
These are the Parliamentary elections. There is no role for regional parties like TRS here. Also, the people know that if they vote for TRS, they would join hands with the BJP. In fact, they already had 16 MPs, but they did nothing to get our share of funds to the State. People know this.
In the 2015 by-polls, your opponent Pasunuri Dayakar of TRS had registered the biggest victory margin in the history of Telangana. How are you going to face him?
At the time, the State was riding on the said Telangana sentiments. Moreover, Pasunuri was a failure as a leader and did nothing for the constituency. The leaders of his own party are unhappy with his performance. I don’t think people are going to vote for him this time.
Warangal Lok Sabha constituency has 6 Assembly segments, out of which only Bhupalpally elected a Congress MLA. So how do you expect to perform well?
The Congress has a fairly good presence in Warangal constituency. All our candidates lost at a narrow margin. Also, here I have the support of Muslims, Christians and the Dalits.
If elected what will be your priority?
First, I will take steps to complete the pending projects, especially the railway coach factory at Kazipet.
Are you finally going to break the jinx of losing polls this time?
Definitely. This elections, everything seems to be working in my favour.