Gajwel: Chief Minister's Turf (image: twitter.com/BRSparty)
Gajwel Assembly constituency is located around 64km from Hyderabad. Since the formation of Telangana state, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo and incumbent and Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) is representing the constituency. In this election, apart from Gajwel, KCR is contesting from one more assembly seat, Kamareddy. Though there is no strong anti-incumbency factor in the fray, Gajwel reported to have the highest number of nominations – 44.
Gajwel comprises a total of 2,65,636 voters – 1,31,774 men, 1,33,855 are women, and seven from third gender. While KCR is contesting for the third consecutive time, his major oppositions will be former BRS minister Eatala Rajender(BJP) and former MLA T Narsa Reddy (Congress).
Eatala Rajender served in the KCR Ministry as Finance Minister of State from 2014 to 2018 and as the Health Minister from 2019 to 2021.The allegations of land encroachments resulted removal of his Ministerial portfolio, following dismissal from the State cabinet. Consequently, he resigned from BRS party and joined BJP. While placing Eatala Rajender in the fray, BJP is aiming at Gajwel”s 38,000 to 40,000 Mudiraj community community votes, to which Rajender belong. Meanwhile, Narsa Reddy won the Gajwel seat in 2009 when it was part of undivided Andhra Pradesh. He joined BRS after 2014 and then, rejoined the Congress in 2018.
In the 2018 election, BRS Chief defeated Vanteru Pratap Reddy of Congress by a margin of over 50,000 votes. Even in the 2014 election, Pratap Reddy was KCR’s opponent and won the seat by a margin of about 20,000 votes. After 2018, Pratap Reddy joined KCR”s party and is currently the chairman of the state-run Telangana State Forest Development Corporation.
Gajwel records impressive transformation over the past 9 years, from a panchayat to a well-developed nagara panchayat. The infrastructure marks remarkable improvement including roads, railway lines, water taps, and other basic amenities and face-lift of the town. KCR took a keen interest in the adopted villages of Yerravalli and Narasannapeta. He oversaw the construction of 2 BHK houses and rebuilt the villages. His farm at Yerravalli, a political power centre, sees him more often than he is seen in public, The South Live reports. However, increasing instances of caste-based discrimination now witnessing in many villages. The dissatisfaction faced by the dislocated families living in Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) colonies for both Mallanna Sagar lift irrigation and Kondapochamma reservoirs poses the independents candidates to project as injustices they are being subjected.
Overall, it seems that Gajwel will be favouring Chief Minister KCR who will conclude the election campaign at his turf on November 28. However, Mudiraj community’s vote will be deciding factor – how it going to turn for BJP and their candidate Eatala Rajender need to be seen .
