MALKAJGIRI: Malkajgiri Parliamentary constituency choosing Congress over TRS in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections indicates to a shift of preference of Seemandhra voters, who form a considerable chunk part of the electorate.
The Assembly segments of Malkajgiri, Quthbullapur and Kukatpally — which had elected TRS candidates to power during last December’s Assembly polls — played a key role in the victory of Congress candidate A Revanth Reddy. Besides, MLA D Sudheer Reddy’s shifting of loyalties from Congress to TRS had very little impact as LB Nagar gave a majority to Congress candidate. For the record, Revanth garnered 6,01,665 votes and TRS’ Marri Rajshekar Reddy polled 5,91,461 votes, BJP’s N Ramchander Rao managed to get 3,03,054 votes.
ALSO READ | Revanth has the last laugh in Malkajgiri
Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency comprises seven Assembly segments — Medchal, Secunderabad Cantonment, Malkajgiri, Qutbullapur, Kukatpally, Uppal and LB Nagar.
This time, Congress secured majority of votes in four Assembly constituencies of Malkajgiri (81,875), Kukatpally (79,312), Quthbullapur (1,15,918) and LB Nagar (97,858). The TRS, on the other hand, secured majority of their votes in just three Assembly segments — Uppal (85,385), Medchal (1,30,286) and Secunderabad Cantt (46,980).
In the 2018 Assembly elections, the TRS candidates had won with a huge majority in six segments — Uppal (1,17,442), Medchal (1,67,324), Malkajgiri (1,14,149), Quthbullapur (1,54,252), Kukatpally (1,11,612) and Secunderabad Cantonment (65,797).
The Congress party did not even contest in Uppal, Malkajgiri, and Kukatapally as part of seat sharing agreement with their Grand Alliance partners.