Too many dissidents, too few seats
Many leaders from the Congress have joined the ruling BRS after being denied a ticket by the grand old party. They include former ministers Nagam Janardhan Reddy and Ponnala Lakshmaiah, and former MLAs Erra Shekar and P Vishnuvardhan Reddy. These leaders are expecting Rajya Sabha or MLC seats. Nevertheless, even in the event of a BRS victory, how many can be accommodated by the pink party, which also has to take care of its existing leaders? Discussions in party circles are that in case the Congress wins, these leaders might come back to their home — the grand old party.
Leaving it vacant for 2028!
The BJP list that was announced on Thursday had some surprises, a couple of them being the candidates from Amberpet and Musheerabad. These are the traditional segments of senior BJP leaders G Kishan Reddy and K Laxman, who have decided not to contest from there this time. Young leaders including the daughter of the Haryana Governor and the son of a former minister had applied for these seats. So why was a former minister, who was earlier arrested in the Telgi scam and who has not been very active, chosen from one of the segments? Party insiders whisper that the senior BJP leaders made sure strong contenders were not fielded in these constituencies as they might want to contest there in 2028.