Third Party, Third Election: Will BJP's K Vishweshwar Reddy Win Chelvella? (image-X/KVishReddy)
Konda Vishweshwar Reddy hails from a prestigious lineage, being the grandson of KV Ranga Reddy, after whom the district of Ranga Reddy is named. His father, Konda Madhava Reddy, served as the former Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. He is married to Sangita Reddy, daughter of Apollo Hospitals founder Prathap C Reddy.
Reddy completed his bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the University of Madras before pursuing a master’s degree from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA. As a professional engineer, he has held adjunct faculty positions at institutions like NJIT and Essex County College. Additionally, he ventured into entrepreneurship by founding Citadel Research & Solutions, a company specialising in engineering research and development.
In 2013, Vishweshwar Reddy entered politics at the behest of K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), the President of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). He won the seat of Telangana”s Chelvella Lok Sabha constituency in the 2014 general elections, securing a victory by a substantial margin of 75,000 votes. Notably, he holds the distinction of being the only Parliamentarian from India to have been granted a US patent while serving in office. He has also held leadership positions at organisations such as General Electric and Wipro HCIT.
In 2018, Vishweshwar Reddy made a significant political shift by joining the Indian National Congress. However, he resigned from the Congress party in March 2021 and aligned himself with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Now, with the BJP ticket, Reddy has been nominated as the candidate from the Chelvella constituency, which came into existence in 2008 following the delimitation of parliamentary constituencies.
Maheswaram, Rajendranagar, Serilingampally, Pargi, Tandur, Chevella (SC reserved), and Vikarabad (SC reserved) are the assembly segments within the constituency. BRS dominates four of the assembly segments, while Congress wields the other three.
In the 2009 general elections, Congress candidate Jaipal Reddy secured victory with 38 percent of votes. In 2014, Vishweshwar Reddy won the seat under the BRS banner with 33 percent of votes. In 2019, he again stood for elections, but this time on the Congress ticket, and ended up losing. Dr. G. Ranjith Reddy of BRS currently represents the constituency.
Over the course of three general elections – 2014, 2019, and 2024 – Reddy has switched political parties for the third time. It remains to be seen if he will be able to secure the Chelvella seat again, this time under the umbrella of the BJP.
