HYDERABAD: The Opposition parties are contemplating to field balladeer Gadar against Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in Gajwel Assembly segment in 2019 Assembly elections. If there is a consensus among them, Gadar will be fielded as a united Opposition candidate against the TRS supremo Chandrasekhar Rao.
Giving credence to this, PCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said here on Saturday that discussions to field Gadar against Rao were going on. He did not rule out the possibility of Gadar taking on Rao in Gajwel in next elections.
Gadar after snapping ties with the banned Maoist party has been trying to enter into active politics and at one stage even thought of floating his own party. When contacted by Express, Gadar said: “I will act as per the wishes of Telangana people.’’ He, however, refused to answer more questions stating that he was a new entrant to politics.
The 69-year-old Gummadi Vittal Rao, popularly known as Gadar, is a poet and revolutionary Telugu balladeer.
Hyderabad: He led the cultural wing of Naxalites for several years. Vittal Rao, who belongs to weaker section, adopted the name Gadar, as a tribute to the pre-independence Gadar party which opposed British colonial rule in Punjab during the 1910s.
According to analysts, as Gadar represents the weaker sections, even the Bahujan Left Front floated recently in the state with several Left parties too would back Gadar in the Assembly elections. Incidentally, Gadar’s native Toopran mandal falls in Gajwel Assembly segment. If Gadar is fielded as a joint Opposition candidate, he would mainly bank on issues like submergence of five villages under Kondapoccham and Mallanna Sagar reservoir and others.
If all the Opposition parties and Gadar agrees to the proposal, the Congress will have a strong candidate against Chandrasekhar Rao. So far, the name of Vonteru Pratap Reddy is being tipped as next Congress candidate in Gajwel. Pratap Reddy joined Congress after he was defeated as a TDP candidate in the hands of Rao in 2014 elections.