The respect for Telangana martyrs’ families, particularly for Kasoju Srikanth Chary, the first person to end his life for the cause of Telangana in the second phase of the movement after December 2009, ‘exhibited’ by political parties, is proving to be hollow now.
They all spoke of helping the family by providing a government job to one of his family members, considerable financial assistance and fielding one of the family members in the Assembly elections. Ostensibly, carried away by such statements, Srikath Achary’s mother, Shankaramma, met the leaders of all political parties including TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
Ultimately, she made up her mind to contest on behalf of TRS and demanded that the party chief allot her a ticket from Palakurthi in Warangal district, from where the family hails, and threatened to end her life if a ticket was denied. She figured among the first list of TRS candidates released on Friday and was chosen to contest from Huzurnagar in Nalgonda district.
Seeing in it an opportunity to take a dig at the TRS leadership, TDP legislator Errabelli Dayakar Rao said she was given Huzurnagar ticket where the party was weak. When asked whether the TDP would field a candidate against the martyr’s mother, Mr. Rao said it was premature to comment as the alliance between TDP and BJP was yet to be finalised.
The Congress on its part has no plans to leave the field open to Ms. Shankaramma as it’s the sitting seat of TPCC working president N. Uttamkumar Reddy. TPCC president Ponnala Lakshmaiah said all the sitting MLAs would be fielded again from their seats. Other parties have little stake in the constituency, irrespective of their decision on contesting the seat.
