HYDERABAD: With the polling date nearing, candidates who had tried their luck unsuccessfully not once but twice or thrice are now playing the sympathy card to sway voters in their favour. In Vemulawada, Aadi Srinivas who had contested on both BJP and Congress tickets since 2009, 2014 and 2018, is in the fray yet again, trying to garner sympathy from the voters.
He is also trying to convince voters to vote against the sitting MLA Ch Ramesh Babu who is facing legal challenges regarding his citizenship. In 2018, Srinivas secured 55,864 votes but faced defeat at the hands of Ramesh Babu, the BRS candidate, by a margin of 28,186 votes.
Medipally Satyam, who contested on a TDP ticket in 2014 and as a Congress candidate in 2018 for the Choppadandi seat, is now trying his luck with the sympathy card. In 2018, he secured 48,963 votes, 4,127 fewer than the victor.
In Dharmapuri, Adluri Laxman Kumar, who faced defeat three times by narrow margins, is leaving no stone unturned to secure victory in the upcoming election. Reminding them of the slim margin of defeat by 441 votes in the last election, Laxman Kumar is urging voters to give him a chance this time around.
Lingala Kamal Raju, a BRS candidate who contested and lost in Madhira in 2009, 2014 and 2018 against Congress leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, is appealing for the sympathy of the voters. Bandi Sanjay, the BJP candidate for the Karimnagar Assembly seat, faced defeat in 2014 and 2018 but emerged victorious in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Sanjay is now once again contesting the Assembly election, vowing to transform Karimnagar into a great city.
In Khairatabad, P Janardhan Reddy’s daughter P Vijaya Reddy is appealing to voters by invoking her father’s name and playing the sympathy card. She had faced defeat earlier. Congress candidate KK Mahender Reddy is taking on BRS working president KT Rama Rao in Sircilla. Mahender Reddy lost in 2009 by a mere 171 votes and is appealing to the voters for a chance.
In Adilabad, BJP candidate Payal Shankar who suffered defeat twice is seeking votes through a sympathy-driven campaign.In the Nampally Assembly constituency, Congress candidate Mohammad Feroz Khan, who has contested three times since 2009, is once again seeking the electorate’s blessing.
It’s not just the defeats that some candidates are invoking to seek votes. Dubbak candidate and MP Kotha Prabhakar Reddy, who was attacked in the early days of campaigning, as well as Achampet MLA Guvvala Bala Raju, who sustained injuries, are also playing the sympathy card to seek votes.