Congress party poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu suggests fielding of a BC candidate from Karimnagar parliament constituency
KARIMNAGAR, MARCH 26, 2024: The Congress high command is contemplating to field Minister for Transport and BC Welfare Ponnam Prabhakar from the Karimnagar parliament constituency in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.
The stalemate for the selection of Congress party candidate from Karimnagar parliament is continuing with over 14 aspirants aspiring for the party ticket. The prominent aspirants include former MLA A Praveen Reddy, former MLC T Santosh Kumar, Velichala Rajender Rao, Polsani Sneha, Regulapati Ramya Rao, Meneni Rohit Rao, Rudra Santosh, Uppu Ravinder, S Suman Reddy and others.
However, the Congress party poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu, one of the most popular election strategists in India, credited with the victory of the Congress party in Karnataka and Telangana assembly elections last year, has informed the party high command that only BC candidate was best suitable to win the elections from the Karimnagar parliament constituency in this elections.
Following the advice given by Sunil Konugolu, who is known to be a director advisor of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party Central Election Committee (CEC) is examining the candidature of Mr Ponnam Prabhakar from the Karimnagar parliament constituency, the sources said.
It may be recalled that Mr Prabhakar had won from the Karimnagar parliament constituency in 2009 elections and played a crucial role during the statehood movement. However, he lost in the 2014 and 2019 elections. During the recent Assembly elections, he had contested from Husnabad assembly segment and won with a thumping majority and became minister in the cabinet of A Revanth Reddy.
The Congress party is of the view that among all other aspirants Ponnam Prabhakar was having a considerable sway in the Karimnagar parliament constituency and was also having sympathy of losing the parliament elections twice. The party is also of the view the BC card, which had worked out in 2009 elections, would also work out in this election from the Karimnagar parliament constituency.
In the recent assembly elections, out of the seven assembly segments of the Karimnagar parliament constituency, the Congress had won from Husnabad, Manakondur, Choppadandi and Vemulawada segments. The BRS had won from Sircilla, Karimnagar and Huzurabad. However, after the defeat of the BRS, majority of the BRS leaders were coming back to the Congress party fold and boosting the morale of the party rank and file.
Though, the rumours say that Husnabad former MLA A Praveen Reddy would be fielded from Karimnagar parliament constituency, but his close associates said that Mr Praveen Reddy was not interested to contest from the parliament constituency. Instead, he was preferring to become TSCAB chairman as he was associated with the cooperative movement through Mulkanoor cooperative bank.
The BJP had announced sitting MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar and BRS announced candidature of former MP B Vinod Kumar from Karimnagar parliament constituency. The Congress party election committee is likely to announce the candidature of Ponnam Prabhakar on March 28.
