Zahirabad: Congress Attempting To Reclaim Old Ground At Struggling Opposition’s Expense

Zahirabad is one of the seventeen Lok Sabha constituencies from Telangana. The political landscape of Telangana has been stirred following the recent assembly election, where the Congress emerged victorious. The political climate in the state is currently ripe for Congress after the assembly election as well as the internal conflicts among the opposition parties. Zahirabad Lok Sabha constituency has a significant electorate comprising SC, ST and Muslim voters. The main agenda of each party here is to consolidate the minority votes.

Zahirabad constituency was established in 2008 after the delimitation process. In the first election, Suresh Kumar Shetkar of Congress won. However, the subsequent two elections favoured the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) who recently changed their name as Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

In 2014 and 2019, BB Patil of BRS was the MP of Zahirabad. In 2019, BB Patil’s margin plunged from 144631 to 6229. BB Patil, reportedly lost the grassroot connections and failed to recognise the undercurrent of the constituency. He switched from BRS to BJP for this election and he is the BJP nominee now. He intends to consolidate the votes by capitalising on the PM Modi image and Ayodhya temple construction.

BRS had won nine seats in 2019 from Telangana. But five of them left the party after the party lost the power to Congress in the state. BRS might struggle to retain the previous vote share in their favour after losing the power and many leaders deserted the party.

Anil Kumar Gali is the BRS candidate in Zahirabad. The party intends to retain their sitting seat even they lost power in the state.

Meanwhile, Congress is attempting to benefit from these internal struggles of other parties in the fray and make use of recent political upsurge in the state that favoured the grand old party.

Suresh Kumar Shetkar, the former MLA of Narayankhed and the first MP of Zahirabad is the congress nominee. He has a political lineage. He was born to freedom fighter and three-time MLA Shivrao Shetkar. It could be beneficial for him to reclaim his seat. Suresh Kumar Shetkar has a deep connection and he knows the dynamics of Zahirabad. In the election of 2019, Congress has succeeded in minimising the vote share and majority of the opposition. The present scenario of Telangana provides a good hope for Congress in Zahirabad.

(This article is part of Timeline Internship Programme)