HYDERABAD: In what can only be described as poetic justice, the people of Telangana refused to give their blessings to leaders who changed their party and contested the Lok Sabha elections.
Irrespective of the symbol they contested on, leaders who changed parties after the Assembly elections fared quite poorly in this election. Except for the Congress Warangal candidate Kadiyam Kavya and BJP Adilabad candidate Godam Nagesh, all turncoats lost the elections.
MLA Danam Nagender, Ranjith Reddy, Patnam Sunitha Mahender Reddy, Neelam Madhu and Kadiyam Kavya, daughter of MLA Kadiyam Srihari, joined the Congress just before the elections and secured tickets. However, among these leaders, only Kadiyam Kavya won from Warangal while the rest were relegated to second place. Interestingly, all these leaders lost to the BJP candidates in their respective constituencies.
Similarly, Godam Nagesh, Gomasa Srinivas, BB Patil, Pothuganti Bharat Prasad, Sanampudi Saidi Reddy, Seetharam Naik and Aroori Ramesh joined the BJP just before the elections and contested. All, except Godam Nagesh, lost the elections.
Meanwhile, RS Praveen Kumar, who was the state BSP chief, joined the BRS and contested from Nagarkurnool constituency, lost to Congress candidate Mallu Ravi.
Political experts say that most of the turncoats lost because they lost their credibility by changing parties.