Debutant defeats ‘rich’ MP in Chevella
HYDERABAD: Chevella has once again elected an entrepreneur-turned-debutant politician, TRS leader G Ranjith Reddy, as its representative to Parliament. A unique constituency created just ahead of the 2009 elections, Chevella is an eclectic mix of underdeveloped areas along with the likes of Serilingampally and Rajendranagar that are home to MNCs and also multiple high-end residential communities.
Winning the electoral contest could not have been an easy task for a debutant like Dr Ranjith Reddy, considering his rival, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy has a wide network of volunteers working in villages across the constituency and was famous for being one of the richest MPs in the country. He is also the grandson of former deputy CM of united AP, Konda Venkata Ranga Reddy.
Ditching the TRS to join the Congress proved a costly move for Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, an engineer-turned-entrepreneur, who made a debut into politics by winning from the same constituency in 2014 on a TRS ticket.
The counting day witnessed a hot battle between the two entrepreneurs-turned-politicians after more than twenty rounds of counting saw a see saw of small margins of one over the other. However, by day end, Dr Ranjith Reddy started to amass a good lead and secured a margin of 14,317 votes. There were also allegations of a few EVMs in the constituency malfunctioning during counting of votes.
During campaigns, Dr Ranjith Reddy had told Express that he solely depended on the performance of his party in the State over the last five years and his strategy seems to have paid off.